To What End?
by Love.Nicolette
Summary: After the war, Gendry has begun to be content with the life he's built for himself within the walls of Winterfell. That is, until Arya unexpectedly returns to show him all that he's been missing.
1. Chapter 1

\- Chapter 1 -

Would she be there?

Probably not. Most likely she was dead. Most likely she'd been dead within a week or two of the Hound running off with her nearly five years ago. Assuming that's what happened. For all he knew she'd asked the Hound for a ride to Riverrun. You never could know what Arya was thinking.

Gendry looked up at the ruin that was once the great Winterfell. Even this late in the evening men were walking along the parapet pulling carts full of stone and mortar. Construction was underway and the Lord of Winterfell was calling any and all skilled laborers to come and help with construction under the promise of housing and food and a place to call home. This had been _her_ home. Hopefully now it could be his.

He looked over at Anguy who'd been the first one (besides himself of course) to remember Arya when they'd decided to take their band north to Winterfell, and the first one to make a jape at him about it. But in truth, he hadn't sought it out simply because Arya had once spoken of it so highly. If it was hard to put your trust in strangers before the war began, it was nearly impossible now. Most towns were reluctant to let a group of men in even if they did include an accomplished blacksmith. Spring was fast approaching after the long winter, but hadn't quite arrived. The promise of food was on everyone's minds. For Winterfell to be welcoming strangers was nearly unheard of. They couldn't pass up the opportunity, no matter how far north it was.

They'd reached the southern gate where a small group of men were set up to accept new arrivals.

"How many?" A scruffy looking man eyed Anguy warily.

"Six." Anguy responded.

"Men?" He glanced around the group, perhaps hoping to find a woman upon closer inspection.

"Aye."

"Just what we need." The man scoffed while he gave the signal to open the portcullis, "More cocks."

The first night they were given temporary accomodations in the stables and were told they'd be fed the next day once they had been given their roles. Luckily they had half a loaf of the hardest bread any man had ever eaten left in their provisions. After trading the last of their horse meat strips to a stable boy for a small flagon of weak broth to dip it in, it was almost a feast.

Before the war it would have felt as if they were being treated like hostages, but in these times just having a roof over your head and a fire in the hearth was more than could be asked for. Another group of men wrapped in furs huddled next to them.

"They say you'll be moved on the morrow, but they been keeping us 'ere in the stables e'ry night for the past two weeks. After working us to the bone during the day, o' course." He looked over at the hammer attached to Gendry's pack. "You a smithy?"

Gendry hesitated a moment, but couldn't see a reason to keep it a secret. "Aye."

"You'll be lucky then. Heard there looking for another good smith. Likely you'll be moved on the morrow then. I offered them to teach me, but" ,here he shook his head, "t'weren't interested."

"Is there not enough room for the men that are arriving? I thought they were shorthanded?" Gendry asked.

"Oh there's plenty o' room for us all. They'll move you someplace nice once they think they can trust ya. They just keep the womenfolk locked up tight in the great house and don't trust no strangers 'round 'em. Not that I can blame 'em. The Lord's sister they say is wary o' men and wants nuttin' to do wit' 'em."

Gendry couldn't help the pounding in his chest and hoped it didn't show on his face. He didn't dare chance a glance at Lem for fear he'd give himself away. "Arya Stark?"

"Oh no." Gendry's stomach sank. "The older one. The redhead. Only seen 'er once since we got here. Looked damn uncomfortable being out of doors. Ain't seen 'er since."

Lem spoke up this time, "The other sister isn't here then."

The man shook his head, "Not that I know of. Thought that one was long since dead. But who am I to know." He laid down on his thin pallet then and bid them goodnight.

That night Gendry dreamt of the night he ran in the dark. Hardly able to see a foot or two in front of his face. Being soaked through with a light rain that chilled him to the bone. Screaming the name of a little girl he'd most likely never seen again.

\- o -

Gendry spent the next year and a half acclimating to his life in Winterfell. He worked 6 days a week in the forge with an older man named Howell and Howell's son that was a couple years younger than Gendry that everyone called Hammer.

He was invited into the Great Keep a few days after his arrival to tell his story of Arya. While his memory of Arya's features was a bit faded with time, he could still see the similarities between her and John Snow. The differences between Arya and her sister Sansa, however were very great indeed. Sansa stared down at him with eyes squinted in distrust, which was perhaps the only thing Arya and Sansa had in common. He was told later by Howell that she looked at everyone that way. That she'd been broken and trusted no one save her brother, Lord Snow.

After the meeting he was sent back to the forge, where he belonged. If the siblings had any information on the whereabouts or well-being of their sister, they didn't share it with Gendry.

\- o -

After a while, one of the women from the kitchens caught Gendry's attention. Her name was Sarah and she'd stop by daily to bring him lunch or a treat she'd snatched from food meant to go to the high table. Howell had caught them once or twice in the cot in the back of the forge when Gendry hadn't woke early enough to shoo her out before work began.

Sarah had long hair that wasn't quite brown and wasn't quite blonde. Freckles were splattered freely across her cheeks. She was old enough that wrinkles had begun to form in the corners of her dull brown eyes, but Gendry never bothered to ask her age. She was warm and soft and laughed freely as if the war had never happened and Gendry couldn't find it in him to ask for much more than that.

Men came and left as time progressed, but Gendry began to feel as if he finally had a home. A place he could grow old. Perhaps have a family if he so wished. Although, truth be told, he was in no hurry.

\- o -

Word of her arrival spread like wildfire. Sometime in the very early morning, before Gendry was even awake, she'd apparently strolled up to the gates and demanded entry. Then strolled into the great keep as if she owned the place. Which she basically did. A year and a half after Gendry's own arrival, Arya Stark had returned to Winterfell.

\- o -

The first morning he decided against attempting to contact her. They were bound to run into one another sooner or later. Surely her brother would tell her that Gendry was at Winterfell once she had time to settle in. She would seek him out, he was sure of it.

The second morning he thought again about heading up to the great keep and asking around. But then thought better of it. How strange would it be for him to come and intrude on her time with her family? He could be patient.

The third morning he thought he may go crazy. Every person who entered the smithy whether it be a customer coming to place an order or Sarah coming to bring the boys their lunch was potentially Arya. Gendry nearly gave himself whiplash from looking up too quickly each time the tiny bells they'd hung above the door rang to signal a newcomer rang. It happened so frequently over the course of the fourth day that when it was time to close up for the night Gendry promptly snatched the little bells off of the door frame and chucked them into the corner. He ignored Howell's complaints about the bells as he grabbed his jacket off the peg next to the door and made his way out the door and into the night.

He spent the dark walk back to his quarters mulling over the many reasons she hadn't come to see him. Maybe she didn't even know he was at Winterfell. He thought for sure Sansa or John would mention it, but perhaps not. Maybe she was angry at him. Afterall the last time he had seen her he'd announced his intention to join up with the brotherhood. Essentially abandoning Arya after all they'd been through together. But what was he meant to do? Follow her around like a puppy looking for scraps for the rest of their lives? Obviously not. Her family would have been less than thrilled to accept a half-assed blacksmith into their ranks. Especially one that was originally meant for the wall and had traveled there with the men who'd ransomed Arya to them.

Perhaps she didn't care that he was here. That was the most likely answer, and the one that hurt the most. But in all actuality it shouldn't bother him at all. He was established here, had his own life now. In comparison to the rest of their lives Arya and Gendry's time together was very short. She'd obviously been off on some grand adventure for the last six or seven years and hadn't given Gendry a second thought since then.

He looked up then and saw a figure sitting next to the door of the small hut Gendry called home. He smiled to himself. Sarah would take his mind off Arya's indifference. As he got closer the figure stood and he realized it wasn't Sarah. Sarah didn't wear breeches. He stopped a few feet away.

"Can I help you?" He asked tentatively.

The figure took a slow step forward, and then another. "Perhaps."

The voice was a woman's. And all at once the pieces of the puzzle locked into place in Gendry's mind and he felt his heart kick against his chest.

"Arya."

The figure smiled then as she took another step towards him. The shadow cast by his home no longer covered her face and the light of the moon caught on her silver eyes making them glow. 'Her eyes have not changed.' he thought to himself. The memories those eyes evoked caused his heart to kick against his chest once again.

"Gendry." She said in response. His name sounded foreign on her lips. Her accent was different. Not quite Westerosi, not the accent he remembered. More had changed then he thought. He stood silent. Words failed him. After a moment of awkward silence Arya spoke again, "Are you going to invite me in?" she gestured towards the door of his home. "I think we have some catching up to do."

He stood stiff a moment longer before a weak, "Sure." croaked from his suddenly parched throat. He knew then he shouldn't have been impatient for this moment. She had the potential to ruin his happiness. She had the potential to make him wish for things he couldn't have. He should tell her how inappropriate it was to have her in his home unattended and send her away. And he might have if he didn't think she would laugh in his face. He might have if he wasn't also afraid that the new Arya might listen and not return.


	2. Chapter 2

\- Chapter 2 -

As he walked across the threshold of the place he called home he resisted looking over his shoulder to watch her follow in behind him. Besides, he didn't need to, he could feel her behind him. The feeling caused the hairs on the back of his neck to rise up, as if they were trying to get closer to her.

He took a moment to light a few of the candles that were scattered haphazardly around the small, but tidy room. She closed the door behind her and leaned languidly against the worn table in the center of the room. He wondered to himself if her not taking a seat in one of the chairs meant that she didn't intend to stay long.

After lighting the candles, he took after her opting not to sit and instead leaned against the far wall. He watched as her eyes scanned the room and felt a bit of embarrassment flare up in his belly, followed closely by anger. Days ago... no... hours ago he'd been proud of his accomplishments in life. He'd been proud of this dingy little shack and it's meager furnishings. And instantly she made him feel inferior, without saying a word. 'Because we're different. Because we never should have been thrust into the same world. Because she doesn't belong here any more than I belong in a castle.'

She looked up at him then. If she caught wind of any of his thoughts she didn't let it show. She smiled a smile that literally seemed to make the room grow brighter. She had straight white teeth with sharp canines that for a moment resembled those of the direwolf on her family's sigil.

"This is all yours? Yours alone?" She asked in that strange accent of hers. He heard no teasing in her tone. Afterall, who knows where she herself had been living these past seven years. The anger left him immediately.

"Aye. Your brother has been good to me." His voice still sounded rough to his own ears. But he couldn't seem to control his throat. He didn't keep eye contact with her, opting instead to take in her face inch-by-inch. The silver eyes were the same and the pointed chin; the same small nose. Pink lips slightly fuller than they had been in childhood. Her face clean and unblemished. Her hair had grown, but by how much he couldn't tell. She had her rich brown hair knotted messily at the base of her neck, a few loose tendrils tucked behind her ears and laying lazily on her shoulders.

She wore breeches, but not any that would be worn by a man. These were made of well-worn leather and fit snug against her legs in an almost immodest way. They ended buried deep into a pair of what looked like brand new leather boots. She wore a clean, white tunic who's sleeves reached down to her wrists and a faded red leather vest. He ignored the body underneath to the best of his abilities, but noted that she looked thin. Thinner even than her wisp of a sister. Thinner than any person had a right to be. She may be a she-wolf, but she looked nothing but feline. 'She looks grown.' Which is to be expected after seven years, he supposed.

He waited a moment while he watched her survey him the same way she had the room. The same way he had her. When her eyes flicked back up to his face, they both shared an awkward laugh. And the tension seemed to abate some.

"Where have you been?" He asked finally.

"Braavos mostly." She replied quickly. "Not in Westeros long. I came straight home." Her accent was unnerving. It made her seem a stranger even while she was so familiar.

"That explains the accent then."

She smiled again and shifted her weight from one leg to the other. "That's all I've been hearing since I got home. Jon cannot wait for me to lose it."

He smiled himself, "Does that mean you'll be staying a while?"

She truly laughed then. A beautiful sound that took the breath out of him. The same laugh. He'd only heard it two or three times before, but it was the same one. "Well I was planning on it. Until I heard that bottom feeders like you and Lem and Anguy were here. Now I'm not so sure."

He found himself smiling again. Even as he was reminded of how much of a bottom feeder he truly was in comparison to the princess of Winterfell.

"Not nearly as bad as we used to be." He paused. "The Hound..." He was unsure how to begin. "What happened?"

"It's not nearly as elaborate as you think. I decided I was going to leave since you all apparently didn't give two fucks about me." Gendry immediately started to protest, but Arya gave him a pointed look and waved her hand in dismissal. "I was going to come crawling back I'm sure, but before I got too far the Hound had snatched me up. He apparently planned to ransom me himself, but we..." She sighed loudly. "It just didn't work out. He was injured so I left him behind. Hopped a ship to Braavos. Met up with the wrong sort. Killed a few people. Didn't kill a few more. Had to leave." She stopped leaning then and began to leisurely walk about the hut, delicately touching the few possessions Gendry had collected. A dull knife on the counter. A pile of folded clothes at the foot of the bed. A wine skin hanging on a peg in the wall. Gendry followed her with his eyes.

"And then you came back here." His voice was quiet.

"And then I came home." She turned to look at him. Settling her weight into a sitting position on the edge of his bed. He swallowed, sure the image would be burned into the back of his brain for weeks.

"You've changed."

"If you say so." She smiled widely then. "You haven't."

He raised his eyebrows. "What makes you think that?"

"You're still angry. You're still jealous."

He felt the anger bubble up in his chest despite himself. "I'm not angry or jealous I -"

"See? Angry." She said pointedly.

"I was wrong, you haven't changed. You're still a massive pain in the arse." He said while worrying his lip between his teeth.

She laughed beautifully again. Making him even angrier. "You're forgetting I'm the one who should be angry."

"Wha-?" He stood fully then. "What do you have to be angry about?"

Her smile vanished. "My father had his head chopped off before my very eyes. My mother and brother were slaughtered under guest rights, their bodies mutilated. My sister was tortured and my half-brother murdered." She took a deep breath. "My other brothers have vanished and are most likely dead. Hot Pie abandoned me the first chance he got, followed closely by you. The only person I had left in the entire world decided to join the band that was attempting to ransom me for money!" In a heartbeat she was standing in front of him. Dagger out and nearly poking him in the chin. "What do you have to be angry about, blacksmith?" She said through gritted teeth. "You weren't raised in a castle? Never had a father?" Then just as quickly as she'd moved toward him before, she moved to the door, sheathing her dagger. "You poor thing."

He watched as she flung open the door and slammed it soundly behind her. "Dear god." He said out loud to himself as he sat warily on his bed and put his face in his hands. Debating whether he should follow after her and apologize. But he knew she was likely long gone. Sleep came hard that night.

\- o -

In the following days after their talk Gendry saw Arya everywhere. The training yard, the great hall for supper, wandering seemingly aimlessly along the parapets and climbing on the walls of the towers. She frequently walked past the smithy on the way to the stables and even stopped in once to introduce herself to Howell and Hammer. She smiled openly at Hammer and asked him his real name (that Gendry had never thought to ask) and insisted she was going to call him Arron (Which was apparently his real name) from then on. "Hammers are for little boys." She quipped, "And that, I am sure, you are not."

"Fuck." Gendry ripped his glove off and popped his burnt finger into his mouth after holding on to the piping hot tongs for a beat too long. Hammer paid him no mind and Arya said her goodbyes. Not sparing Gendry a glance.

Hammer smiled the whole afternoon. 'Go on and smile then green boy. She'll rip you to pieces and laugh all the while.' Gendry thought to himself, nursing his burnt finger for the rest of the day. His anger only abiding when Sarah came in to bring him lunch.

That same night Sarah patiently waited in the smithy for him to finish his work and then they walked the long walk back to his hut arm in arm. When they drew near he noticed the window was open and a candle flickered inside.

"Wait here." He said to Sarah, suddenly cautious. Walking up to the window and shouting, "Hello?" inside.

"WOO!" Arya's face popped up in front of his. He immediately shouted and shoved his hand out towards her face, but she was too quick and pulled away easily. Laughing that same laugh of hers the whole while.

"God DAMN it, Arya! What's wrong with you!" He shouted. His hands raking through his unkempt hair once before he placed them both on the top of his head and looked to the sky for answers.

Arya didn't respond. Just continued to laugh somewhere inside his house. Gendry looked over to Sarah who watched the scene, brown eyes wide. Completely unsure of what was going on. Gendry took his hands off his head and stomped over to the door, pulling it open and glaring at the girl on the floor clutching her sides in laughter.

"What is wrong with you?" He asked again. "What are you doing here?"

She sat up then, wiping mock tears away from her eyes. "Waiting for you of course." He caught the way her smile faltered infinitesimally when Sarah made herself known in the doorway.

"Hello." Sarah nearly whispered. "Are you..." She gestured toward Arya, "Are you Arya Stark?"

Arya stood up slowly then, holding her hand out to shake Sarah's. "Yes that's me. You're Sarah right? Work in the kitchens?"

Sarah nodded in answer. Then quickly remembered to curtsy. "A pleasure to meet you m'lady. I didn't think you knew my name."

Arya only smiled. "Well this certainly isn't the kitchens."

Sarah blushed then, "Oh! No, m'lady I'm sorry. I was just walking Gendry home."

Arya's smile broadened as she caught Gendry's eyes with her own, "Aw, how sweet of you to escort him. Glad that no harm has come to our good smithy."

The three stood in silence for a moment before Arya spoke again, "It seems a bit inappropriate for me to leave you two here alone, however. Wouldn't want to put your honor at stake." She said unabashedly.

"Oh! Of course you're right m'lady. I'll be headed home now." Sarah quickly curtsied again and picked up her long dirty skirts as she left. Leaving the door open wide.

After a moment of waiting for Arya to speak, Gendry nodded toward the door. "You're so worried about Sarah's honor. Shouldn't you be worried about your own? Highborn lady and all?"

Arya smiled, "Who said I was worried about Sarah's honor? I was only worried about yours."

Gendry's jaw twitched. 'If you're worried about my honor then you're just about the last person who should be here.' He wouldn't say that though. "I'm surprised you care so much all the sudden. I thought you were still not speaking to me. I half expected to see you at Hammer's home one of these nights."

"Maybe someday. But not today." Arya opted to sit in one of the wooden chairs this time.

"You're done ignoring me then?" Gendry asked, chiding himself for not being more upset about her chasing off Sarah for the night.

"I suppose. I didn't see you making any attempts to speak to me either you know."

Gendry crossed his arms and sighed, "Ahh, but what would a lowly smithy like me have to say to m'lady high?"

Her eyes narrowed, "You used to have plenty to say."

"I was young. I didn't know my place."

She rolled her eyes, "There's that anger again."

"What are you doing here Arya?" He responded quickly.

She shrugged, "Bored. Fighting with Sansa. Fighting with Jon."

"What's got you fighting with Jon." He asked.

She leaned back then, her knee pushing her away from the table so that the chair stood precariously on one leg. "He had the gall to start talking marriage with me already." She pulled out her dagger, the same one she'd held against his chin a few days prior and began to clean under her nails. "I had known that Sansa would bring it up eventually, but I didn't expect it from Jon within a month of my arrival home."

Gendry clicked his teeth together, "One of the many perils of being a young lady with an important surname I suppose."

"I suppose." She repeated as she continued to clean her nails. She wore the same pair of leather pants he'd seen her in before with a jerkin almost golden in color. It clashed a bit with her deep brown hair, but he doubted she noticed or cared. She was still stunning.

"So when's the big day? I'm assuming there'll be a feast. Perhaps a melee to be won?"

She looked up then, ignoring his first question, which annoyed Gendry as he very much wanted her to confirm there would be no marriage. At least not any time soon. "Would Jon let you participate in a proper melee?"

He patted his hands one the top of his thighs and made a show off brushing off the imaginary dirt. Just for something to do with his hands. The nervous energy building up inside of him. "He held a small melee once before and allowed any and all to participate for a small fee."

"Did you win?"

He smiled, "No. But quite a few put coin down that I would."

"I thought not." She scoffed and went back to her nails once again.

He took the insult easily, "I hear you're a force to be reckoned with in the training yard." He finally decided to sit down in the chair across the table from her.

"Jon has put me in charge of training a group of soldiers. He's letting me take my pick of fifty young men to train in water dancing." She let the chair drop back down to four legs. "I would pick you as one, but you don't have the right build. Too bulky." She pointed the handle of her dagger in his direction before she sheathed it inside of her boot.

"I've no time to train anyway, m'lady." He smirked when he saw the look of annoyance cross her features with the honorific. "Your brother laments to give me one day a week out of the forge. Likes my work too much."

"I'm no lady. And that I'd heard. He said you have an eye for weaponry." She leaned forward on the table. Without meaning to, Gendry glanced down the front of her shirt, but instead of an eyeful of cleavage he saw a strange white cloth wrapped tightly around her chest. 'Is she injured?' He wondered.

SLAM. Arya slapped her hand on the table in front of him while shouting, "Gendry!"

He jumped back in his seat his eyes flying back up to her face. She gave him a quizzical look. "I said! Do you want to go somewhere?"

"When?"

"Right now!"

"It's freezing outside! Where would you want to go?"

"I don't know! Anywhere!"

He thought for a moment. "I don't know if it's a good idea for people to see us wandering around together."

She rolled her eyes again. "Why are you so worried about other people? Who cares what they think?"

"You're the lady of the house. You'll be lucky if a guard doesn't escort you back to see Jon the moment he finds you're outside of the great keep."

"I'd love to see them try to be honest." She stood up. "How about the Godswood? There shouldn't be anyone there this late at night. Let's take a walk."

He stared for a moment. It had to be nearly midnight. Gendry always worked late. Her brother would be wroth if he was found wandering around alone with her. But he would be just as upset if someone knew they were here in his house alone. He thought of Sarah and hoped she wasn't telling all the girls in the kitchens, but figured she almost certainly was. So what did it matter now anyway? "Alright." He agreed, "Don't you have a cloak or something?"

"I don't and I'm freezing my arse off. But I figured you'd have an extra. I kind of left in a hurry." He rolled his eyes and dug through the simple wooden chest at the foot of his bed. Managing to find a thick, wool, tunic with long sleeves.

"Will this do?" He held it up and she snatched it out of his hands, quickly shimmying it over her head. She took a moment to roll up the sleeves once so that her fingertips could be seen. Then she reached under the shirt to unfasten her belt and refasten it around her middle over the tunic. Providing some shape to the ensemble and also preventing a cold breeze from blowing straight up the shirt. He felt his heart thump heavily in his chest at the size of it on her. She was a tiny thing and his tunic reached nearly to her knees. The belt fastened around her middle showed off her slim waist and he scolded himself internally at the sudden urge he had to place his hands around it to see if they could span it completely.

"Feels good to me." She looked down at herself. He smiled and shook his head at her phrasing.

"Lead the way then."


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't understand why she got so angry so quickly." Jon shook his head. He finally stopped his pacing and sat down in the unusually large armchair in the corner. It had been a present from Lord Manderly. "It's not like I said she had to marry him tomorrow. Or even that she had to marry him at all."

"Don't ask me. I'll never understand how her mind works." Sansa continued adding stitches to the large heart tree inspired tapestry she intended for the great hall.

"You understand me though right? Obviously I'm in no hurry to see Arya leave us again. No more than I want to see you married off. I wouldn't have said anything -"

"If he hadn't insisted they were old friends. I know, Jon, I know." Sansa finished his sentence without looking up.

"It's not as if Starfall is so important that I'd send her away to be married against her will." He said. Mostly to himself, as Sansa didn't seem eager to respond again.

They both turned at the sound of a soft knock on the door.

"Come in." Jon said hurriedly. A timid handmaid walked slowly into the room accompanied by Jory Hastor, the guard meant to be at Arya's door for the night. Immediately Jon knew why they had arrived.

"She's gone again." Jon felt his anger flare at his own statement.

"Aye m'lord. I'm sorry. I wouldn't even 'ave known she was gone if it weren't for-"

"Enough. Do I need to station you _inside_ of her rooms from now on, Jory?" Jon snapped.

"No, m'lord. I'm sorry m'lord."

Jon sighed, knowing it wasn't Jory he was angry with. "Just go and find her. And tell me immediately when she's found."

"Aye m'lord."

\- - o - -

This was not the night for a walk. It seemed to get even colder the closer they got to the heart tree in the center of the Godswood. Gendry watched the white cold mist of their breaths mingle in the air as they walked. Finally when they reached the weirwood Arya took a seat on one of its largest roots and Gendry followed suit. Choosing to sit next to her rather than across from her. She looked cold.

They sat in an amicable silence for a while taking in the sleeping Godswood as a soft snow started to fall.

Finally Gendry spoke first. "I hope you appreciate this. I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow." He smiled over at her. Hoping it showed how much he didn't really mind at all.

She gave him a sideways glance and smiled herself, "I envy you being able to sleep. So as punishment for you being a total arse the other day I thought I'd like to keep you awake tonight."

"I wasn't being an arse. I was just in shock is all. I had a ghost in my house." But she wasn't a ghost at all. He'd seen a ghosts. Come back from the dead to haunt those that had wronged them. Arya was real and alive and shivering. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to run his hands over her arms and legs until she was warm again. She was a woman grown, but she somehow looked more fragile now then she had when she was a child. She was still shorter than him by a head and thin as a whip. He noticed then in the faint moonlight the dark circles under her eyes. "Why can't you sleep?"

She shrugged, "You know how when you have a nightmare, it's usually about someone you know?" He looked confused for a moment. She tried to explain. "I think when most people have nightmares it's about someone they _know_. Maybe someone you hate that's trying to hurt you or someone you love is being tortured. That sort of thing." Gendry frowned, but she continued. "I dream about people I don't know. Strangers with faces I've never seen before. I'll dream about a stranger being kind to me and then, SNAP!" She snapped her fingers for emphasis, "They turn and they hate me. They want to kill me or follow me and murder my family. Swallow me whole and steal my face." She shuddered and Gendry resisted the urge to put an arm around her.

He swallowed hard, "You're safe now, you know. Whatever happened to you before. You're safe now." He did touch her arm then, an allowable contact. "Jon would never let anything happen to you." _'I would never let anything happen to you.'_ He thought.

She shook her head slowly, but didn't verbally argue with him. Just looked down at her feet while she gently pushed snow around with the toe of her boot. Suddenly she looked up at him. "Tell me something only you and I would know. Tell me..." She paused, thinking for a moment. "Back when you and I met, how did you find out I was a girl?"

 _'You were too pretty to be a boy. I liked you a bit too much.'_ He thought. "Do I really need to pass a test? Can't you just look at my face?" He said.

"Gendry just answer. Please."

He sighed and broke eye contact with her. Feeling uncomfortable. "You wouldn't..." He paused feeling his face heat up. "...Make water in front of us. The boys."

She smiled. "Right." Then, "Okay, what was the nickname Lommy green hands gave me?"

"Uhh.." He couldn't quite remember, "Lumpy face."

She laughed. "Close enough. Okay last one, what was my name in Harrenhal?"

He knew this one. "Weasel. And then Nan. I had a pretty hard time keeping them straight if anyone brought you up."

She cocked her head to the side, "Who brought me up?"

"No one." He responded. And laughed as she shoved at his arm in annoyance. Dislodging only herself from their seat on the weirwood root.

"I tried not to spend a lot of time thinking of things that happened in Westeros while I was away, but occasionally I did wonder..." She looked over at him. Her face serious. "That night, when the Hound took me. Did you guys even _try_ to find me?"

Gendry's mouth dropped open in surprise. "Of course we did!" He stood up then, frustrated. "The second I realized you were gone I ran after you like a fool. Shouting your name for what seemed like hours." He held his hands straight out, the cadence of his speech growing quicker as he spoke. "I was soaked clean through and frozen to the bone when Lem and Anguy finally caught up to me. I wouldn't even have stopped looking had they not dragged me back to the inn. We all left as soon as the rain stopped to try and follow the Hound. The trail was hard to follow, but Anguy and I made it all the way to the crossroads. We found out we'd missed you by days when we arrived. Heard the story of what had happened with Gregor Clegane's men. We heard that you'd left with the Hound while he was in a bad way." He dropped his hands, stepping forward so he stood right in front of her. "I stayed at the Inn at the Crossroads _years_. I'm not sure when I gave up hope that maybe you'd come back there at some point. Even after I heard stories that you'd been married off to Roose Bolton's son I wondered if you'd someday make it back. Then we heard t'wasn't really you and I- OOMF."

His sentence was cut short and the wind knocked out of him when Arya flung herself at him. At first he thought it was an attack until she latched her arms around his neck and her legs around his middle. He stumbled for a second, fearing he might fall in the snow, but righted himself quickly and took a seat back down on another of the weirwood's roots with her still wrapped around him.

"Thank you." She whispered. When he sat down fully, she adjusted her seat in his lap, pulling her legs from around his waist and letting her knees rest on either side of his hips. But kept her arms firmly around his neck and her face against his shoulder.

The whole scenario was so unlike Arya that for a full minute he sat still in shock. The warmth of her body seeped into his very bones and his heart beat so violently against his chest; against her chest; that he thought it impossible that it wouldn't bruise.

She peeked up at him then with surprisingly tear filled eyes. "Haven't you ever hugged anyone before?" She choked out a laugh. Her voice thick with emotion.

With her question he realized he hadn't put his arms around her. And after taking a moment to glance around at the soft falling snow in search of prying eyes that (thankfully) weren't there. He allowed himself to bring his arms around her and pull her even closer. One arm wrapped around her waist, his fingers splaying dangerously across her left hip. The other ran across the length of her back with his hand pressing her shoulder tightly to his chest. He buried his face into the side of her neck, his eyes screwed tight while he breathed her in.

 _'She's real. She's alive. This is_ Arya _._ ' He thought, the realization seemingly hitting him for the first time. This was Arry. This was the girl he'd been searching for and wondering about for years. One of the biggest regrets of his life was being instantly rectified by having her here, alive, in his arms. It hit him like a ton of bricks. _'She's right here. With me.'_ He opened his eyes then. She looked cold in the early spring night, but she felt warm against him. She looked skin and bones when she stood in front of him, but in his arms she felt nothing but soft.

He felt her move her head to wipe her eyes on the sleeve of her shirt, his shirt. Then she turned her head to bury her own face in his neck. And he closed his eyes again as he felt the tickle of her breath just under his ear and against his jaw. His blood quickened in his veins and he leaned his cheek against the side of her head. Fighting the demons within his chest that screamed _"Mine. Mine. Mine."_ She wasn't his. She could never be. But in this moment it was hard to believe she wasn't when he felt her thighs pressed against his sides and her hands clutching the shirt on his back.

"Gendry?"

They stumbled apart at the sudden voice in the darkness. Arya kept her head down and didn't turn around, but stood frozen in front of Gendry as he scanned the darkness for a face. The cold rush of air that invaded the space between them was more sobering than a splash of water to the face. Finally after a moment he saw Jory Hastor, one of the guards, emerge from the dark. It was obvious Jory hadn't realized yet who had been in his lap.

"Well what do we 'ave 'ere?" Jory smiled, "I'd ask you what you were doing, Gendry, but obviously you're hidin' from Sarah, eh? Who's this?" He stepped closer.

 _'You nosey arse.'_ Gendry thought, but before he could come up with a good lie, Arya turned to face Jory.

"Jory." She spoke loudly. Her chin raising in defiance. Jory's face fell in realization and surprise, "Go tell Jon I'm not a prisoner and if he insists on sending a guard after me to drag me back to the dungeons each time he finds I'm not there then I won't be making the mistake of letting his search party find me in the future."

"M'lady." Jory knelt then, looking between Arya and Gendry twice. "I.." He stood again quickly, "I'll tell the Lord, but I'm sure he'll be wroth if -"

"I will go find him soon." Arya cut him off.

"Aye, M'lady." Jory turned and left.

Once he was sure Jory had gone, Gendry groaned aloud. Looking up to the night sky and running his hands through his hair twice in frustration.

"I guess this is goodnight then." Arya shrugged. "Will you walk back with me?"

Gendry continued to look up at the sky. "We should run and catch up with Jory. See if he won't keep his mouth shut about this."

Arya looked at him strangely, "Telling someone to keep it a secret implies we were doing something wrong. And we weren't." She shrugged again, "There's nothing to hide. You're not the first man I've hugged and I'm sure you won't be the last. Jon can do nothing about that."

He thought he heard the demons grumble in protest at her statement and spent a second reminding himself it didn't matter. She wasn't his. Couldn't be. To think otherwise was foolish.

A hug.

He felt like it had been more than a hug. But now that the spell was broken, perhaps it hadn't been. Maybe he had only wished it was. Either way Jon wouldn't like it if he heard about it. That much was certain.

They walked back to the great keep in silence, but before they were near enough to be overheard Gendry spoke again. "I missed you Arya. I'm happy you're..." He shook his head and looked down at his feet.

"Alive?" She finished for him.

He nodded, still looking down at his feet. "Yes. At the same time though. You know Jon would string me up if he thought something was going on between us. And I'd be surprised if he sees a hug between m'lady and one of his smithies as appropriate."

"Jon wouldn't string you up ever." She rolled her eyes. "And I'm not m'lady" She tacked on for good measure.

He looked up at her then, "Maybe he wouldn't. But maybe he would just send me away. Maybe he'd ask me to leave the life that I've built here just to distance me from his sister. Then what?"

"Then I'll leave too." She answered defiantly.

He swallowed the knot in his throat. "Stop being ridiculous Arya." He wasn't sure which issue to tackle first. The fact that she wouldn't leave with him or that she'd hate him for leaving or that he doesn't have any desire to leave. Was spending time with her worth losing all that he's gained here? The answer was no. But she wouldn't like hearing that, so he kept it to himself. They wouldn't be welcome anywhere if they left. There was no place for a highborn lady and a lowborn bastard to settle down, even if that was her intention.

"I'm not being ridiculous. I won't be told what I can and cannot do by anyone."

"I have no choice though Arya. I do what I'm told, when I'm told."

"And if Jon tells you not to speak to me anymore? What then?"

He didn't answer, just stared at her, willing her to understand.

"I didn't realize you were such a bloody craven." She spat on the ground then and started stomping towards the keep. He started to follow, but she turned on him. "I don't need your help. Go home!"

Gendry felt the muscle in his jaw twitch as he pressed his teeth together. "As m'lady commands." He gave a mocking bow and turned to stomp back to his house.

She roared in annoyance and shouted, "Wait!" He stopped in his tracks but didn't look back until he felt something hit him in the back of the head before falling into the snow at his feet. He looked up to see her stomping towards the great keep before he scooped his shirt up off the ground and slung it over his shoulder. Only to rip it off his shoulder and wad it in his fist in annoyance when he caught the scent of her on it.

\- - o - -

Sarah found him early the next morning. He was exhausted, as he knew he would be. After all the events from last night he had nearly forgotten Arya's dismissal of Sarah and knew she would have something to say about it today.

"So, rubbing elbows with the ladies of the house all a sudden? Or mayhaps something more than elbows?" She asked as she walked into the forge.

Gendry sighed, "She was just bored I think. I don't think she's made too many friends here yet is all." He accepted the bit of buttered bread she offered. That's what he liked about Sarah, even the few times she was wroth she still brought him food.

"Bored. Aye. Are you keeping her entertained m'lord?" She smiled at him.

"She was a little girl when I knew her last. She doesn't understand propriety with the help."

"No. Now she's a woman grown who's wantin' some affection I'll take it. You just let me know if she's aiming to get it from you. Because I won't be your extra bedwarmer, blacksmith."

Howell guffawed at Sarah and Hammer looked up from his work. "You already got yourself a woman Gendry. Leave m'lady for me." He gave Gendry a wink and Gendry nearly crushed the bread in his hand with the urge to put his fist to Hammer's teeth.

Sarah frowned then when she saw his anger. She reached up and pulled his face down to look at her. "Is that the way of it then, Gendry?"

Gendry pulled back and shook his head. He stuffed the bread into his mouth and walked straight out of the forge. Putting distance between him and the three of them. As he walked away, he heard Howell shout from the door, "Don't you be gone too long boy. There's still work to be done. Girl or no."

He ran his hand over his face. It was going to be a long day.

\- - o - -

Authors Note:

Next chapter will be up within the week and its an Arya POV! Let me know how you like the story so far!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

\- o -

She was nervous. He'd laugh in her face and probably make some jape about Jon hanging him. He'd brush it off as if she wasn't serious when she absolutely was. He'd tell her to go get married if she was interested in losing her maidenhead. When he knew full well that marriage was the last thing she would ever want. Luckily, she also knew he had the day off and she'd be able to bug him to her hearts content without being bogged down by the heat of the forge or his constant complaints that she was distracting him while he tried to work.

In the east she could see the first light of morning and she listened to the noisy 'crunch crunch' her boots made on the still partially frozen ground. She knew today promised to be a warm spring day for the first time in a long time. At least that's what Maester Tarly had said and she chose to believe him.

She led the two saddled palfreys she'd chosen out out of the stables toward the twenty or so small houses that were kept in their own little "village" just inside Winterfell's southern wall. They were mostly homes meant for families who served within the great keep. Like their woman cook who had six small children and no husband. She'd begged Jon to let her bring them within the walls and one of the homes had been given to her. Gendry was given one of the homes as a gift for good work from Jon although he had no family and could have stayed in the servants quarters or even in the back of the forge with no problem. She was happy to find that her brother had liked Gendry even before she was there to help strengthen their bond.

Following their argument a week prior, Jon and Arya had a long talk. And after much debate Jon gave her leave to do whatever she'd like within her home, Winterfell. As well as leave to go outside of the walls as long as she let Jon know she was leaving and was back before it got too dark. Mostly so Sansa wouldn't have a true heart attack.

Apparently Jory hadn't ratted them out to Jon. But Arya told Jon that she'd found a friend in Gendry, of her own accord. And after promising she'd gut Gendry standing if he tried tried to touch her (if only Jon knew about her proposal for this afternoon) Jon told her he didn't mind her keeping company with him as long as it didn't interfere too much with his work.

Jon was apologetic about even the mention of her leaving to go live in Dorne. And she realized she'd overreacted a bit to the news. For some reason Ned Dayne sent a raven asking for her hand in marriage the moment he'd heard she'd returned to Winterfell. She'd liked Ned Dayne, but couldn't remember anything at all in their short time together that would possess him to think she would be interested in marrying him. Men were strange.

She attached the horse's reins to a community hitching post about 30 feet away from Gendry's front door. The houses here were spaced well apart giving everyone the illusion of privacy, but Gendry told her he could hear the neighbors fighting two doors down even in the pouring rain. Arya had never in her life given too much thought about how common people lived, and she definitely wouldn't judge them for it. But sometimes she did feel a little odd about the fact that she should get to live in a castle with several rooms at her own disposal simply because she was born to a lord, while scores and scores of entire families buckled down in one room shacks across the realm. Many not even owning a proper horse and some walking miles just to work within her castle's walls. But she absolutely couldn't mention any of that to Gendry, lest he go off on one of his famous rants about the injustice of it all.

She peeked inside the lone window in the hut and saw nothing of life except a large lump on the bed she knew to be Gendry. She attempted to quietly open the door, intent on surprising him, but found it barred shut. Clearly he anticipated Arya waking him this morning. She went back to the window and attempted to gently push it open, but found that Gendry had apparently, without her knowledge, affixed some type of lock to the two expensive panes of glass to keep them from being opened from the outside.

Frustrated she thought about crawling on the roof of the hut and shimmying down the narrow chimney. She planned to take Gendry for a swim today so it wouldn't matter if she got dirty, but she wasn't sure exactly what his roof was made of and if it could hold her weight. No sense in putting an Arya-sized hole in the roof of Gendry's pride and joy.

She decided to take the less fun route and tap gently on the window. Gendry immediately sat straight up in bed, looking around wildly. He always was easy to wake. He found her face in the window and through the thin walls of his home she heard him groan in annoyance and watched as he fell back into the cushion of his bed. Reaching over to find his blanket and pull it up and over his head. Leaving his feet to stick out below.

She laughed and knowing he could hear her spoke to him through the window. "If you don't get up I'm gonna have to attempt to crawl up on your roof to get in through your chimney."

"Go away Arya. I get one day a week to sleep in and you're ruining it."

"Alright the roof it is then." She shrugged and moved away from the window. Loudly tapping the side of the house with her foot to make it sound as if she was perhaps scaling the wall.

"Arya if you come down my chimney so help me..." She didn't hear the rest of his reply as she walked around the house making noise against the walls.

After a moment of this she heard the wooden slat he used to bar his door move and the door creak open.

"Get in here then." Gendry said to her as he left the door open and walked toward his bed.

She caught a glimpse of his muscled back. She'd seen it before in the forge when it got so hot he was forced to either remove his shirt or soak it clean through. His sleeping britches hung so low on his hips that she could see two dimples in his lower back. For some reason the site of them caused her to have a tightening sensation run from deep in her chest straight down to the space between her legs and settle heavily. And as he turned to sit on his bed he leaned back on his arms the pressure there did not leave. _'Was this what men felt when they had a whore in their lap?'_ She wondered.

"What do you have in store for us today then?" He asked, seemingly over being woken so early.

She walked over and sat on the table, crossing her legs at the ankle and resisted the urge to rub her legs together to relieve some of the strange tension she was feeling. Honestly, why wouldn't he just put on a shirt?

"Well, I'll give you two options. One, we can go for a ride to the pond." She ignored the eye roll he gave her. She'd mentioned a few weeks ago that she wanted to take him for a swim if they ever got a warm day. And he told her he didn't know how to swim and had no interest in learning in the frigid cold waters of early spring. "Or two, we can both crawl in that bed and sleep this beautiful day away." She saw his eyes narrow in a glare.

"Well if you're hoping to _swim_ at this pond either option would be completely unacceptable to your brother and sister." He said.

She shrugged, "And we absolutely must do one or the other so why not just crawl back into bed together?" She watched the lump in his throat bob once with his swallow. Even as he glared at her. She had no idea what it meant. Gendry was not used to her gentle flirtations. And honestly, Arya wasn't used to it either. But his reaction each time was so entertaining she couldn't seem to stop. Besides, if he were to give her what she was asking for today, what better place to be than right there in his bed?

"As much as I'd love to go back to sleep, I doubt that would be possible without worrying your brother would come and murder me while I slept for having his little sister in his bed." He stood up and began rifling through the messy pile of clothes that had been shoved unceremoniously in the corner of the room. Usually his home was clean and organized. But Arya knew he'd been spending so much time with her when he wasn't at work or sleeping he'd barely found time to wash his clothes, let alone fold them and put them away. She nearly felt guilty, but then decided she didn't care.

"The pond it is then." Arya smiled.

"I won't be swimming. I want to make that clear now." Arya gave him a look that she hope told him she didn't believe him. "And you're swimming in that?" He nodded toward her outfit.

Her smile widened, but she didn't answer his question. "The horses are outside. Hurry up we're wasting daylight!"

He murmured something under his breath as she left the house and made her way over to the horses. Last week they'd taken their first ride together and while Gendry's riding had improved since their childhood, she knew he still wasn't a huge fan. Luckily the pond wasn't far. She wondered if she should ask him before or after their swim. She planned to swim naked whether or not he decided to join her. And since men generally tended to like those kinds of things she thought maybe he'd be more inclined to take her maidenhead AFTER he saw her naked. Although it was entirely likely he would refuse to look, he would at least be THINKING about it. Surely that was enough.

The guards gave them no grief at the door, no one batted an eye at the fact that she was leaving to go be alone with Gendry. It had become pretty commonplace for her to be with him when she wasn't inside the keep with Jon or Sansa or out in the training yard with the men.

When she'd brought up spending time with Gendry to Jon, he was extremely apprehensive at first, until she roughly told him she didn't have a maidenhead to worry about anymore and couldn't give two shits about what anyone thought of her honor. She never intended to marry anyone, ever and certainly wouldn't marry anyone who would be opposed to marrying her because she wasn't a maid.

Her maidenhead was another one of her little secrets. Better to get Jon used to the idea of her not having it so he could stop going out of his way to protect it against her will. Better she get rid of it and not have to continue to lie. And besides she was curious. One time with a man wouldn't be so bad. One more thing to cross of her list of things to do before she was given the gift.

Gendry was quiet while riding next to her. His face screwed up in that strange expression that let her know he was thinking, hard.

"It's not much farther." She said to fill the air with noise. She was second guessing herself. Maybe she shouldn't ask him. Maybe she should pay one of the stable boys or find a brothel with a man in it. He didn't respond, but his face relaxed enough to let her know he wasn't upset about the ride.

When they had reached the pond and tied up their horses Gendry took a moment to pick up a couple rocks from the bed and toss them in a way that allowed them to skim across the surface of the water. Arya mastered the technique within a few minutes of trying and soon had him scowling as her stones skipped three or four times across the water as opposed to his own that were managing only two or three. He soon gave up trying to best her and sat down a large bolder covered in new spring moss.

"You're a liar. There's no way you haven't done that before."

"Or perhaps I'm just a quick learner and you aren't particularly good at it." She threw another with four good skips for good measure and then began to remove her vest. Tossing it to the ground when it was off, then bent over and started working on the laces of her boots.

"What are you _doing_?" Gendry sounded half worried, half tired. As if he knew he was about to lose an argument about propriety. Which he was.

"I don't want to get my clothes all wet now do I?" She said matter-of-factually. She finished the first boot, removed it and her sock and began work on the other.

He sighed, exasperated, "You cannot just take off your clothes and swim. Especially not with me here."

"Can't I?" She cocked her head to the side, feigning innocence. "And aren't you going to join me? You don't have to strip completely down. I'm sure your smallclothes will suffice."

He sighed again, but this one sounded almost like a groan. "You know I have to leave right? I'm not going to just sit here and watch while you swim naked. Anyone could..."

"UGH! There you go again!" She was suddenly irritated. "Why do you care so much what everyone else thinks?! I'm more than tired of hearing about how you and I shouldn't be doing every single thing you and I do! And every single time we end up doing it so you really should stop complaining about everyone else and just... Where are you _going_?!" She stood up fast and marched after him. The thawing earth still cold against her bare feet.

He stalked toward the horses. She caught up to him just as he reached up to untie his horse from the branch it'd been secured to. She batted his hands away and they struggled over them for a moment before she finally gave up on trying to knock his hands away from the reins and used all of her weight to shove him in the side away from the branch entirely. He barely moved an inch, but it did deter him from freeing the horse. His hands moved down to her shoulders, pushing her gently away from him, but his expression was anything but gentle.

"Not this time Arya. This isn't the same and you know it. Shooing away propriety is one thing when your brother says he doesn't mind you and I being alone together, but watching you swim naked and especially joining you to swim naked is completely disrespectful to Jon. I won't do that to him. I won't."

She made a loud noise of annoyance and attempted to dislodge her shoulders from his hands. "Fine! I won't swim! If you'll do one thing for me."

He stared at her for a moment, he was prepared for the worst. As he should be.

"Let's go sit back down over there. And I want you to listen to everything that I have to say before you answer."

She watched a muscle in his jaw jump a few times while he stared her down. The heat of his hands seemed to burn into her shoulders through the thin undershirt she wore after she'd discarded her tunic. She had the strangest urge to reach out and feel stubble that grew on his jaw. She remembered for a moment him as a half-grown boy with a beard after they'd been traveling for a bit with Yoren. Now he was a full-grown man and the stubble on his jaw was fresh and did strange things to her insides for no apparent reason.

"You're forgetting that I don't have to swim with you or do whatever other crazy favor you're thinking of asking. I can get on my horse and leave right now. I could even leave the horse and just walk back if m'lady has decided I'm not allowed to ride."

"Don't even start with that today, Gendry. You're right, you don't have to stay here. But I do need a favor. A big one. And I'll be willing to pay."

"I make good money on my own-"

She held up a hand to stop him then, shrugging away from his hands, "Yes, yes I know, you don't need my money. Blah, blah, blah. But only a fool would turn down easy work for reasonable pay, right?"

"What do you want, Arya." He said flatly.

"Sit down and promise me you'll listen to everything I have to say before you tell me yes or no!" She shouted back.

He rolled his eyes, took a deep breath and let it out in a deep sigh. He screwed his mouth tight and all but shoved off of Arya, before turning and stomping back to the moss covered boulder to lean against it with his arms and ankles crossed. The tick in his jaw was visible from a mile away and Arya watched it for a moment while she stood a few feet in front of him with her hands folded demurely in front of her as if she was about to deliver a performance.

"Okay. Promise me you'll listen to everything I have to say before you give me an answer or turn and storm back to the horses."

"Is what you're about to say going to make me turn and 'storm to the horses'?" He asked irritatingly.

"Possibly! But only because you're such an irritating arse!" She snapped.

He promptly turned and began to storm towards the horses once again.

"Gendry! Stop it! Just come back and hear what I have to say! Please!"

The pleading tone to her voice must have gotten to him, because he stopped, did that thing where he looked to the sky for answers that would never ever be there and then returned to his perch on the rock without a word.

"Okay. Just listen to me as a friend, please."

He didn't answer and she watched that muscle in his jaw tick twice more before she spoke again. "As you know, Jon asked me if I wanted to go to Starfall and marry Ned Dayne." She watched him roll his eyes and let out an irritated huff like a proper bull. "After I said no he sent Sansa to ask me if I was still a maid." Gendry's eyes flicked from the piece of grass he'd been staring at up to her face, and then back down again in half a heartbeat. "And I told her no." She paused for a moment, but his face didn't change. He just continued staring at the ground. "But I lied." His eyebrows lowered infinitesimally in confusion.

"Why would you-"

"You implied that you'd listen to me before interrupting."

"No, you said I should listen before answering. I am asking a question."

"Well don't." She snapped back. But luckily he didn't storm away this time. He just looked even more irritable than before. "I lied to her because I didn't want Jon going out of his way to try and keep me a maid for no reason. I lied because maybe the word will get out and I won't seem to be such an attractive bride to all the lords in the realm. I lied because I wanted to spend time with men alone and not have to worry about what other people thought. I'm already ruined and worthless to them, so they will just leave me be, right?"

"Why are you telling me-"

"God! Will you just shut your big bull mouth for a second and let me finish?!" She threw her hands in the air. He was impossible.

"Finish then!" Said the ass.

"I don't want to lie to my family. And I don't want to be a maid anymore." Understanding flashed in front of his eyes and she could see the protest forming on his lips. So she finished her request in a rush, "Will-you-please-take-my-stupid-maidenhead-so-I-can-be-rid-of-it-and-never-have-to-think-about-it-or-be-asked-about-it-again?"

"You're right. I'm storming to the horses." He said and turned away from her.

"Gendry! Please!" She ran in front of him to block his way. Her hands clasped in front of her like a septa in prayer. "Please! I'll pay you! We don't even have to get naked. It can be so quick!"

His eyes grew wider as she spoke, "Well doesn't that just sound like a great time!" He moved past her, but she blocked his way again.

"It doesn't have to be!" She said, then judging the look on his face immediately tried the other route, "Or it can be! Whatever you want!"

"You're insane." He moved around her for the third, maybe fourth time.

She grew truly angry then, reaching down to pick up a stick she found on the ground and tossed it at him, hitting him in the shoulder. "FINE THEN! I'LL EXTEND MY OFFER TO ARRON AND SEE IF HE WON'T TAKE ME UP ON IT! YOU BIG STUPID!"

He turned then and stalked back to her.

"If you even think about asking Hammer for anything like that I'll drag you both to Lord Snow so fast you won't even know what happened!"

"I WILL ASK HIM!" She shouted again, knowing she was a liar. "AND YOU WON'T EVEN KNOW! I'LL TELL HIM NOT TO TELL YOU!"

He loosed his horse's reins from the tree branch. "Then I'd better get to Jon right away, before you have a chance."

"Oh _please_!" She shouted as she ran to untie her own horse. "I've seen you ride! I'll be to Winterfell, bedded and pregnant as Cook's goat before you can even find Jon!"

He swung around on her then. Stalking right up to her so he towered over her. She looked up at his angry eyes in defiance feeling the tips of her bound breasts brushing against his torso as he loomed over her.

"Is that what you want _m'lady_?" He put extra emphasis on his rude nickname for her. "Just any man at all to fuck you raw and put a bastard in your belly?"

"No!" She shouted back, "I want you to!" She watched the look of surprise on his face before she blushed a red deeper than she'd ever seen before and corrected herself. "That's not what I meant!" She stood on her tiptoes attempting to get eye-level with him. Which was nearly impossible since she was a full head shorter and they were standing on a small hill that made him seem even taller than he already was. "I don't need someone to 'fuck me raw' and I won't be whelping any bastards! I'll have Tarly make me some moon tea."

"You're so ridiculous I can't even look at you." He moved away from her and began to mount his mare. She quickly mounted her own and turned the horse.

"It's a race then? To see if I can't find a man to bed me before you can snitch on me?"

"Arya! STOP THIS!" He shouted at her. His horse fidgeting with the command. "You don't just... You can't just..." He closed his eyes and sighed to calm himself down. Then said slowly, "This isn't the way it works, Arya. This isn't how you bed someone."

"I know that! I just-"

"No, listen!" He said firmly. And she closed her mouth, fuming. "I know you say you don't want to get married. But don't you want to be with someone? Have a man you spend your nights with. That kisses you and brings you flowers and whatever else high-born men do?"

She thought of Gendry kissing her and tried not to let what she thought of that show on her face. "No."

"Surely you don't want to be alone forever? Surely someday you'll want a partner. Someone to grow old with and call family and have sleeping next to you every night?"

"Why would I want to share a bed with someone? I like my space. And I'll grow old with everyone, with you, with Sansa, with Jon. We'll all get old eventually."

"What about a partner then? Someone to help you out and listen to your affairs and help you decide them? Someone who's next to you through everything. Forever."

"Why can't that be you?" She said without thinking.

He shook his head slightly, "Because I'm a bloody fucking blacksmith! And you're Arya of house stark! Stop pretending that we're equals, Arya. Because I think you're starting to believe it yourself!"

Now she was well and truly angry. She felt the anger bubble up in her chest and shouted at the top of her lungs. "I am Arya Stark and I command you lay with me or I swear to the many faced god I will find another man this night to do it for you!"

He twisted his face in fury. "Then have fun with your paid whore for the night, Arya! Whatever unfortunate sod you choose will be more than happy to oblige I'm sure!"

She literally roared at him in a single furious note and turned her horse. Spurring it into action with the heels of her bare feet towards Winterfell. She didn't check to see if he was following.


	5. Chapter 5

\- - o - -

He ignored the strange looks that he received when he finally did reach the southern gate of Winterfell. Surely the guards that had seen them leave a few hours earlier found it strange when Arya returned alone with nothing but breeches and an undershirt on, but luckily they didn't question Gendry about it. He had spent the entire ride back trying to decide if he should run straight to Lord Snow and tell him exactly what Arya claimed she was planning. He decided against it though. He was unsure if Arya would actually attempt to find a random stranger to bed her. Most likely she was bluffing.

How easy would it have been to take her up on her offer? No matter how much he attempted to deny it during his waking hours, in his dreams he'd taken Arya in just about every way imaginable. His obsession with her was unhealthy and possibly detrimental to his health. But damn if he could help it.

He spent the next few hours checking all of the places that Arya was likely to be. It being his day off, Hammer and Howell were in the forge where they should be. Both men were surprised to see Gendry on his day off and said they hadn't seen or heard from Arya all day. The stables confirmed that Arya did return with her horse and unless she'd gone back out on foot she was within Winterfell's walls.

The training yard was relatively empty as was the godswood. The longer he looked the angrier he became. What if she was busy bedding someone in her room in the great keep right now? How unusual would it be for Gendry to walk inside the great keep and ask for her? They were all very used to Gendry and Arya spending quite a lot of time together, but he had never followed her all the way to her room and wasn't even entirely sure which room it was.

Besides even if he did go through the embarrassment of asking one of the serving girls where Arya's room was (He was sure they'd have quite a story to tell the other servants) and he made it to her room without someone sending him back outside where he belonged, what would he do if he actually found Arya in bed with someone? Beat the life out of him with his bare hands. Then he'd be in the dungeons and Arya would be busy bedding someone else of her choosing.

He turned back around just before he reached the entry way of the great keep. He was going back to bed. Hopefully he'd be able to catch a mid-afternoon nap without interruption. If he was able to get the thought of Arya fucking some knight out of his head long enough to drift off.

When he got back to his house he reached down to find the wooden slate he used to bar the door missing. "God damn it." he said aloud to himself in a whisper. She'd been there then, and stolen his means to lock his own door to keep her out. He took this as a good sign. That meant she intended to come back, probably tonight. And if she'd immediately come to his home to steal the slate he locked his door with then she probably hadn't immediately tried to find someone to fuck. He sat on his bed, trying to decide if he should continue his search. But if Arya didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be.

There was nothing left for him to do then lay back on his lumpy straw bed and pray that she'd been bluffing and would remain a maid for the night. All the while reminding himself that he shouldn't care either way.

\- - o - -

"I swear if it weren't for me all you'd do is sit in the forge and sleep."

Gendry smiled and chose not to open his eyes. He'd woke when he heard the door creep open, but chose to lay still rather than let her think she'd surprised him.

"Did it ever occur to you that I'm not interested in doing much more than hammering and sleeping?" He replied. Still refusing to move.

"I think there's at least one more thing you enjoy doing if the kitchen maids are to be believed."

His smile wavered and he opened his eyes to see her sitting in a chair next to his bed in the dark. Apparently he'd slept longer than he'd intended.

"What are you doing talking to kitchen maids anyway? Aren't they a bit beneath your station, m'lady?"

"Aye, but I'm not sure if they fall above or below blacksmiths on the list of people who are supposed to be beneath my station."

"I'd like to think below, but most likely they're above." He sat up and held his rough hands up to her face. "They're cleaner."

She shoved his hands away. "Will you come to my room with me?"

Gendry frowned, rubbing his face with both hands. "You didn't find anyone to take your maidenhead then? You're back to nagging me?"

She smiled, "I gave up that search when Sandor turned me down."

Gendry laughed out loud at that. Sandor Clegane had shown up unexpectedly a few weeks prior. He'd pledged himself to be the sworn sword of Lady Sansa and to everyone's surprise she had accepted. He now followed her like a lost puppy all over the grounds. And the fearful angry Sansa that Gendry had come to know in the last few years had blossomed under Clegane's protection. She walked the grounds frequently now and had come to the forge on several occasions to request gifts for several of her friends as well as new riding spurs for her boots. He'd never seen her so often in the entire time he'd lived at Winterfell than he had since Sandor Clegane returned.

"Just tell me you didn't actually ask him, Arya."

"As if I'd let that dog in my bed." She spat on the floor for emphasis. "Anyway, I'm not asking you to my room to take my maidenhead. I sort of..." She paused looking down at her boots in a very shy way that was very unlike Arya. "Don't you want to see my room? I've seen this shack of yours a hundred times."

He wasn't expecting that. "You know they won't let me in your room."

"We'll go in the back way. I've already paid that dull witted Mormont guard to keep his bloody mouth shut. It's getting late now anyway, near everyone is already asleep."

He sat for a moment, wondering if Arya had an ulterior motive. Having slept since the early afternoon until now he was wide awake anyway. "Aye alright. But if anyone stops us I'm gonna tell them you dragged me there against my will."

"Aye, alright." She repeated.

\- - o - -

They went around behind the great keep to a side entrance that was well hidden, and if it weren't for the guard posted in such an inconspicuous spot you wouldn't even notice there was anything to see.

"Hello John." Arya whispered in the darkness shocking the man out of his daze.

"Lady Stark. Smith." He nodded to Gendry.

Gendry held up a hand in an awkward wave, but Arya snatched it within her own and led him into the narrow entryway to a short corridor that seemed to lead around the outside of the castle. It was very warm inside. So much so that Gendry almost immediately began to feel sweat at his temples.

"These corridors trap the heat from the hot springs. It helps to keep the castle warm all year round." She explained.

After quite a bit of twisting and listening to the muffled voices of people on the other side of the walls Arya finally reached her destination and pushed aside a heavy tapestry to reveal a large room bathed in blue moonlight.

"Tada!" Arya whispered. She immediately walked over to one of the fine carved tables on the side of the large canopy bed in the middle of the room and struck a match to begin lighting various candles around the room. "What do you think?"

Gendry looked around the room. He couldn't quite remember a time he'd seen a nobles bedchamber. Her room was certainly lavish, but here and there he could spot the things that made it Arya's alone. The large tapestry that had hidden the passageway to Arya's room was a picture of various swords. A golden hilted bastard sword, a great sword, a tiny dagger, a Dothraki arakh, and others that Gendry couldn't name all next to one another with a brilliant blue background.

"Sansa made that for me. Only took her a couple months once I was back. She said she has something even better for my birthday. It's the first tapestry I think I actually liked." Arya explained.

"It's impressive." A large fur blanket covered the bed and Gendry was sure it was wolf fur, but didn't ask. Along the far wall were several real weapons. Obviously a collection of Arya's. Papers were strewn across a desk in the corner. That was a strange sight to see because he hadn't expected Arya to be involved in so much paperwork. But considering he himself couldn't read, his imagination was limited in what she could be using them for.

She showed him many of the items in her collection and allowed him to explore. He laughed when he opened her large impressive wardrobe and saw nothing but several mens shirts and few pairs of her too-snug pants. Two fancy gray dresses were shoved into the back and he was sure they'd never been worn. A pair of very well worn leather boots sat on the bottom of the wardrobe and when he lifted one up and showed it to her with a very confused look on his face she smiled and said, "Those were the boots I came back from Braavos in. Jon ordered new boots be made for me the next day because they were in such tatters. They were good boots though. I didn't want to just throw them out."

He laughed again and closed the wardrobe doors gently. When he turned back to look at Arya she had crept up on him. Standing close to him and looking up into his face with large silver eyes.

"Have you ever thought what it might be like for us to kiss?" She said suddenly. Moving her gaze down to his lips.

Of course he had. "Not this again, Arya."

"This what? It's just a question. It's not like I'm in love with you." She frowned, but didn't drag her eyes away from his lips. He felt his face harden with her comment. Obviously, he didn't think Arya was in love with him. But she could keep that fact to herself as far as he was concerned. "I just wonder if it would be different than kissing a stranger." He stood still as stone. The anger he was so well known for began bubbling up in his chest although he wasn't quite sure why.

"I've thought about it." She whispered. His heart began to pound and he felt his brows furrow. She leaned a little closer to him then. She was either oblivious to his anger or, most likely, was attempting to provoke him further. "I know a maidenhead means nothing. I've told Jon I'm not a maid and that's all that matters. He would never have me examined." Gendry's head swam unsure where she was going with her little speech. He was able to glance away to see that the main door to her room was barred shut. "Can't we just try kissing once. And if we don't like it we don't have to do it again. Things between us wouldn't have to change with just a kiss."

He felt the anger hit a fever pitch then. No, things between them would never change. He would always be a blacksmith who had once fancied himself a knight and she would be a highborn lady, their stations wouldn't change, their titles wouldn't change, their relationship couldn't change.

So he closed the gap between them with one quick dip of his neck.

He kissed her.

Her lips were shut tight in what was most likely shock. He brought his hand to the back of her head, slipping his fingers beneath the soft hair gathered into the bun at the nape of her neck. He tiled his head and the moment he felt her lips finally relax he parted them with the tip of his tongue. Her mouth tasted like cool water. And again he felt how soft she could be when she melted into him. Her tiny hands that had taken the lives of countless men sat gently against his chest. The hand not tangled in her hair had somehow found its way around her waist. He tightened his hold on her until she was pressed against him chest to toes. He felt one of her hands tentatively slide from his chest up to the back of his neck. And the feel of her fingers in the hair at the nape of his own neck sent a shiver through him and he felt his hips press into hers as a gasp escaped his throat. For a moment he considered just kissing her, letting it carry on to what it would inevitably lead to. But he'd started this kiss with a purpose.

He quickly pulled back and with both hands reached down to grab the hem of her shirt. Pulling it rather ungracefully up over her head until it got tangled in her arms. She struggled as he yanked it off of her. When he was done she was red in the face and fuming. Standing before him with no shirt on, but her chest was still covered by yards of thin white fabric that was wrapped tightly around it.

"What's that." Gendry pointed to her bound chest, trying his best to control his voice and breathing even as his lungs burned for air and his mouth burned for more of her.

Arya's jaw was set staring up into his face breathing angrily through her nostrils. "What's what?", she snapped.

Gendry didn't answer but crossed his arms and stared down at her. He couldn't keep his eyes off her lips. Swollen with a kiss he gave her. Her cheeks flushed and her chest rising and falling rapidly as if she'd been running for miles. All that aside, she knew very well what's what.

"None of your business that's what it is." She made a futile grab for her shirt that he held in his hand but he moved it away from her.

Gendry shook his head, "That's where you're wrong. If you want me to be kissing and touching you then I have every right to know what you're trying to hide under there."

"I don't see how that makes any sense." Arya scoffed. "It helps keep me balanced when I'm waterdancing." She said at last.

"I don't see how that makes any sense." Gendry repeated back at her.

She rolled her eyes and made a second grab at the shirt in his hand. This time she was too quick for him and managed to snatch it. "They throw me off balance. I've been wrapping them since they popped out of no where."

Realization hit him then, "Your...breasts?" He stammered a bit on the word like a green lad.

"Yes, stupid. My breasts. Have you ever tried waterdancing with breasts? They're useless and slow you down. Plus stupid men like to stare at them and make japes."

While she spoke his eyes took in the flat planes of her stomach and the jut of her hipbone and suddenly he was supremely interested in seeing the rest of her, however indecent it was. He stepped toward her and put a hand on the shirt that she was turning right side out to put back on.

"Definitely not worthless." He said to her and tried to capture her lips with his own again. But this time she pulled back.

"You're making fun of me." She whispered angrily.

"I'm not." He said in return and reached up behind her to tug at the knot he found in the back of the material. "You're not waterdancing now are you?"

Her eyes grew wide and his confidence soared when he saw the tiny shake of her head and felt the shirt she'd been holding fall to the floor at their feet.

He made quick work of the knot in the back and captured her mouth once again as he gently moved her arms up to his shoulders. Then began unwrapping the cloth from around her chest slowly. He leaned back and watched as the fabric was pulled away and angry red marks were left in it's wake where the fabric had been digging into her skin too tightly. He moved his head down and brushed his lips across the tops of her breasts when the mounds began to pop free of their confines. They too were covered in the angry red marks left by the too-tight fabric.

"Don't do this to yourself, Arya." He whispered against her skin and he closed his eyes for a moment when he heard her whimper of reply. He finally pulled the last of the fabric away and exposed her two pink, stiff nipples to his own gaze. He chanced a look up into her face for a moment but she wouldn't look at him and instead looked off towards the window on their right. He leaned down then and pulled one of her nipples full into his mouth and reveled in the way her body instinctively arched beneath him. Her hands found their way into his thick black hair and she pulled his mouth closer. He took the other breast into his hand and soon moved his mouth so he could lap that one with his tongue as well.

"Gendry." She whimpered and hearing his name on her lips was his undoing. Without removing his mouth from her right breast he picked her up. She quickly wrapped her long legs around his middle like she'd done that night in the godswood and he pressed her firmly up against the solid wood of one of the columns of her canopy bed. The wood groaned a bit in protest, but held fast. He considered laying her on the bed instead, but decided it wasn't the smart thing to do. He couldn't get too carried away. Although, seven hells, he wanted to. Grinding his hips into the juncture of her legs, she moaned aloud, but it did little to appease the growing need he felt. He moved his lips down to suckle at her neck, careful not to leave a mark for her family to find in the morning. She tasted of honey somehow. He held the column behind her with one hand and used the other under her ass to help keep her against him. His mouth found her collarbone and he nipped at it with his teeth. Arya flung her head back and raked her fingernails against his scalp through his hair, eliciting another unexpected noise from deep within his throat. He wanted to mark her, to take her as his own and leave something to show the world that she was his right now, even when she could never be his forever. But that was stupid, and crazy. He brought his mouth back up to hers but she dodged his kiss and brought her mouth to suck on the sensitive skin under his jaw that protected his jugular. She sucked the skin in hard between her lips and he involuntarily bucked his hips against her, grinding his stiffness into the heaven between her legs. He flung his own head back then to allow her access to more of his neck even knowing she truly would leave marks for everyone to see tomorrow. He'd have to come up with an explanation and had no idea what he'd tell Sarah, but at the moment he didn't care in the slightest.

"Show me more, Gendry. Please." He hears her breath of a voice against his ear.

"-Arya?"

They freeze. Arya's eyes fly open and catch Gendry's. Someone knocks on the door. Their voice coming from the other side.

"Arya? Can I come in?"

"Sansa." Arya mouthed the word at Gendry, but it took him a moment to comprehend. The spell broke and Gendry pulled away from her. Nearly dropping her in his haste. Reality splashed itself in his face like a bucket of iced water.

"Can't we talk tomorrow? I'm trying to sleep." Arya called back. Gendry heard the quiver in her voice but hoped that Sansa couldn't tell.

"I'll only be a moment. A letter just arrived from Starfall and I thought maybe you'd want to read it right away."

Gendry frowned and snapped his eyes back to Arya. She wouldn't look at him and was turned towards the door. She deftly slipped back on her shirt and snatched a vest from a hook on the wall. Putting it on to cover the still hard tips of her nipples that were visible through the thin fabric of her shirt. and pointed him towards the passage they'd come in from. He took the hint and grabbed his boots. He pulled the thick tapestry aside and crouched within the entryway, unseen. He wasn't sure if she meant for him to leave entirely (and hoped that he wouldn't get lost on his own) or if she meant for him to wait until Sansa left.

She walked over to the tapestry and pulled it back pointing down the dark corridor, "Go." She whispered and then let the tapestry fall back to leave him in darkness. But convinced he would make less noise staying still where he was than stumbling around in the narrow pitch-black corridors, he didn't move.

He heard Arya remove the heavy board that kept her bedroom door barred and open it.

"You really shouldn't bar your door shut. How will a guard get to you if you need them?" Sansa's voice was muffled behind the heavy tapestry, but Gendry could make out the words.

"I won't ever need them." Arya replied. He heard the scraping of parchment, perhaps she was opening the letter Sansa had been speaking of.

"I just thought maybe you'd want to read it right away. He wrote to me too. Seems extremely pleased that you've changed your mind about visiting."

"I don't really feel like talking about it. I really just want to go to bed." Arya said quickly.

"Do you plan on sleeping in those horrible breeches?" Sansa asked.

"They're not horrible. They're comfortable."

"Are you going to wear them when we're in Starfall too?"

Gendry felt his eyebrows shoot into his hairline. Arya was planning to go to Starfall? Anger billowed in his chest she'd told him she definitely wouldn't be going just weeks ago.

"I don't want to talk about Starfall right now. I just want to go to bed." Arya repeated quickly.

"Why are you being so terse?" The sadness in Sansa's voice was obvious. "You were fine talking about it earlier today. Have you changed your mind? Ned will be so disappointed..."

"Just stop Sansa!" Arya attempted to cut her off, but Gendry had heard. He turned then. Caring little if he made too much noise while exiting the corridor. He'd find his way out himself if it took him all night.

\- - o - -


	6. Chapter 6

Summary: A much needed conversation that never quite comes to fruition. [Please read authors note before the chapter!]

Notes: Hello! I bet you thought I'd given up on this story! And for a while I did, but I have a quick explanation. After writing the fifth chapter to this story and posting I felt a bit disappointed in it. I lamented for a long time over where to take the story from there. I wasn't happy with it and posted before I was truly finished. So after 6 months of attempting to write a chapter to bring the story back to where I wanted it to be I decided to change some key details in the previous chapter. So before you read this chapter I encourage you to go back and re-read chapter 5. I felt I had moved Gendry and Arya's relationship along a little too fast for my liking and wanted to continue the slow-burn and bring it back to a place that the characters could easily come back from. I also felt Arya was a bit out of character in my original writing of chapter 5 and tried harder with it's revision to keep it more true to Arya as a person. So please go back and read chapter 5 and then enjoy the chapter I have written for you today. I have already began work on chapter 7 and plan to have it up by the end of the week! Thank you so much for your kind words and patience. Don't lose hope in me yet!

\- - o - -

Chapter 6

She didn't come to him that night like he thought she might. Perhaps she didn't want to risk rousing Sansa's suspicions. Perhaps she was eagerly writing back to whatever Ned Dayne had said in his letter.

Gendry couldn't care less.

The next morning he went to work as if nothing had changed. Not that he would have had a choice to stay at home. He didn't try to hide the marks on his neck, he really had no way to anyway, he wasn't about to wear a scarf around his neck in the heat of the forge. Howell was enjoying his day off and Hammer didn't comment on the dark bruise he sported on his neck. A not so subtle reminder of Arya's lips on his skin.

He hoped Sarah wouldn't come to visit until the marks were gone, but he knew he couldn't get so lucky. Since he'd been spending so much time with Arya Sarah had been coming to visit him less and less and hadn't been in his bed in nearly a month. Before he thought she was being foolish. But he was happy for it now. He felt guilty enough as it was without adding betraying a good woman to the mix.

He and Sarah had never had a real conversation about their relationship. Howell and Hammer sometimes made japes to them about their wedding date and little Gendry's running around, but Sarah had never come to him asking him for any such thing. He had thought a few times about asking Sarah to truly be his woman. But something had always held him back. He tried not to think about what that something was. Because if he had been waiting for /that/ something, he was a damned fool.

Nevertheless, that same afternoon when she'd walked through the doors of the forge and fixed her eyes first on his own and then quickly glanced down to the mark on his neck before taking a deep breath and walking right back out of the forge he felt the feeling of guilt deep in his belly. He set the helm he'd been pounding onto the counter-top along with his hammer. Feeling Hammer's eyes boring into the back of his head all the while.

"I'm taking a break." Gendry said without looking up.

"I take it that marks not from Sarah then?" He heard the smile in Hammer's voice.

"Mind your own business." Gendry snapped as he rushed past him out the open door to the forge.

He had to jog to catch up to her, but before he could she turned on him. People bustled around them in their every day activities, but she didn't seem to be in the mood for discretion.

"What do you want Gendry Waters?" She nearly shouted.

He stopped. His mouth open. What did he want?

"I see you found yourself a new girl. And that's all well and fine, but don't expect me to keep bringing you lunch. I'm no fool."

He couldn't bring himself to say anything and he wasn't even sure what to say, 'I'm sorry.' didn't really seem to cover it. So he just stood, listening to her.

"Just tell me one thing, Gendry." She said. Stepping closer to him, getting close enough that he could smell the familiar flour scent that clung to her clothing. "Are they going to move you into the great keep or move m'lady Stark into the forge?"

He clenched his jaw and answered only with, "You don't know what you're talking about." Even though she obviously knew exactly what she was talking about. He turned and said over his shoulder, "I can get my own lunch just fine." And stormed away back toward the forge. The 'I'm sorry' looming over his head that would need to be said one day, but couldn't be said today apparently.

\- - o - -

Arya span out of the way as her opponent lunged at her with the grace of a whale caught on shore. As she span she brought her wooden training sword around to smack him forcefully across his shoulder blades. Hopefully hard enough to leave a bruise. It was harder to train men to waterdance then she thought it would be. They were all lunges and stabs when they needed to be ducks and slashes. But she couldn't stop. She swore to Jon that she could train her battalion of soldiers to be the best in the entire army. She wouldn't give up just because they seemed incapable of learning. Most of them, it seemed, just refused to take instruction from a woman. But she would beat that out of them, one way or another.

After the exercise was done and she allowed her men to make their way back into the barracks to clean up and rest her mind caught up to her.

While she trained it was easy to take her mind off of Starfall and more importantly off of Gendry. She felt her heart jump in her chest and shook her head at the strange feeling. When she closed her eyes she could only imagine his hands on her. His lips against her breast, his breath hot in her ear, the wetness that had pooled between her legs as he pressed himself against her and the unshakable feeling of needing more. The lust that clawed up from her middle and made her movements jerky and desperate.

She couldn't escape her room last night to go and find Gendry again. Sansa spoke with her about Starfall until the late hours of the night and eventually fell asleep in Arya's bed. Sandor Clegane knocked at some point and asked to be sure that Sansa was okay. Arya said she was and sent him away, telling him her guard for the night, Jory would be sufficient. He scoffed at her and sent Jory away instead. Taking up Jory's place outside Arya's door for the night. The next morning Sansa was gone when Arya awoke and Sandor with her.

Sansa had convinced Arya to accept Ned Dayne's offer to visit Starfall on the condition that she bring Sansa with her. No one knew it, but Sansa was husband hunting. Her womanly instincts seemed to have kicked in and she was eager to have children of her own to take care of. And with Sandor by her side she apparently wasn't afraid of leaving Winterfell to find a lovely home of her own.

Jon and Arya were surprised that she was suddenly willing to take on such a role when just months before she'd been anguished and fearful to even leave the great keep's walls. But Sandor was with her now and as her sword sword he would follow her to the ends of the Earth if she so wanted.

She hadn't thought about telling Gendry of her leaving. Or rather, she had thought about it, but somehow pushed it from her mind as she might do an unpleasant experience she'd rather not think about. Like nearly all of her time in Braavos which seemed like a distant dream to her now.

But she supposed she ought to say something to him before she left in two weeks time. And decided she would stop by the forge to see if he would attempt to get off early that night (as he sometimes did when it was Howell's day off) so that they could take a walk and chat about her impending departure.

When she reached the forge and found Gendry within, however, she could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't in the best of moods. But decided to ask anyway. She always got her way in the end.

"G'day, Arron." She waved to Hammer, who gave her a thousand sun smile when he looked up at her.

"Ullo, m'lady fancy seeing you here on such a grim day." He nodded towards Gendry, who didn't look up from his work.

"Oh no." Arya said to Hammer, "He's already angry today before I even arrived? Who's been doing all my work for me?"

"Ahh." Hammer turned to snatch another tool from the counter-top behind him, "I think it mightn't be a girl, but who am I to know-"

"Stop talking about me as if I'm not standing right here, thank you." Gendry growled working a delicate pattern into a hot iron plate. Arya watched almost mesmerized for a moment at the speed in which he carved the beautiful pattern into the metal. Thin curling streams of iron curled away from the sharp pick in his hands and she suddenly remembered the feel of his fingers as they tugged in her breasts and hair. While she watched him work a strange surge of pride bloomed in her chest that made little sense to her. She had no appreciation for art, but for some reason seeing the beautiful work he was creating and remembering the way he held her the night before made her feel a strange connection to him. She jumped when he spoke again.

"Is there something you wanted, m'lady?" He'd stopped carving and was looking at her with his brilliant blue irises ablaze with some kind of fire. She ignored the title and stepped closer to him, almost unable to help herself.

"I was wondering if you might leave soon, to take a walk with me." She ignored Hammer's silence behind her, which proved he was listening intently.

"A walk." Gendry repeated. "I have work to do, Arya. I can't be taking walks all the time."

"When was the last time we took a walk?"

"Yesterday." He said flatly.

"That was a ride." Arya quickly replied.

Gendry rolled his eyes. "So when do you leave for Starfall." She watched his eyes narrow as he caught her look of surprise. So he had been listening to her and Sansa's conversation.

"A fortnight."

Gendry didn't reply for a moment. Probably because of Hammer's eager ears behind her. "I don't want to take a walk today." His blue eyes were blazing with something akin to anger now. He thought she was going for Ned Dayne. But why should he care, really?

"I'll be back at dusk for that walk." Then she turned on her heel and left. She made it a few feet before she heard him behind her.

"What are you playing at Arya Stark?" He said in a low tone, so as not to attract the attention of any passersby.

"I'm not playing at anything. I wanted to speak with you about me leaving for Starfall is all."

He paused for a moment. "Be here at dusk then." And then he turned and marched back into the forge.

Maybe he knew his tone might deter her from showing up at dusk. But she really was eager to talk to him to assure him that she was coming back. That the trip was for Sansa, to agree that perhaps she could have told him sooner, but that she really didn't have to tell him anything if she didn't feel like it. To hash that argument out. And perhaps... just maybe... kiss him again.

\- - o - -

She arrived at Dusk like he knew she would. She was eager to explain herself, and he was eager to be offered an explanation.

He walked with her wordlessly towards the godswood. Ignoring the looks of curiosity they received as they stomped by his peers side by side. No doubt many of them had heard of his fight with Sarah and had heard her take on the mark on his neck. But they had no proof and even if word got back to Jon he was sure Arya would deny having anything to do with it.

They reached a spot next to the hot springs with a piling of rocks that allowed them to sit while they spoke. But then once they sat neither did. She looked off at the fading light in the west and he looked down at the babbling of the springs and the steam that emanated off of them. After a while of sitting in silence Gendry spoke.

"I never liked Ned Dayne." He said, hearing an unusual wavering in his own voice.

"I noticed." She said in reply. "Although I never understood it. Just jealousy I suppose."

He looked up at her then, his brow furrowed, "I was never jealous-"

She cut him off, "You are always jealous of any highborn lad or lady. You always have been. You act as if they all personally had a hand in you being born in flea bottom."

He ignored the way she said, 'they' as if the comment didn't include her as well.

"I don't blame them for me being low-born. I blame them for how they treat us just because we weren't born in a-"

She cut him off again. "Jon's given you a home and work and money to spend on whatever you want-"

It was his turn to cut her off, "Well how generous of Lord Snow then. To give me things to keep me alive while I break my back for him day in and day out." He stood now his fists clenched in anger. "I don't know why I agreed to this. Go be Lady Starfall, Arya. Stop kissing your brother's underlings and give your damn maidenhead to your lord husband like a good highborn brat." He turned to stomp away and Arya jumped up to get in his way.

"Maybe I will then! It's not as if kissing my underlings means fuck all to me anyway! At least if I trade my maidenhead to Edric Dayne I'll be getting a castle out of the deal! If I traded it to you I wouldn't get much but your shit attitude the next day!"

"Loads of girls beg for my shit attitude every single day!" Gendry growled. Knowing the sentence made little to no sense.

Arya took a step towards him then, "Oh do they now? I find that hard to believe. But I bet you could get a few more girls begging for you to ring their bells if you bathed every once in a while! Why not start now?!" and with that she shoved him, with all her might. He went to step back but instead found nothing but empty air and in a panic grabbed onto Arya's arm as he fell backwards into the hot spring. Dragging Arya in with him.

He let go of Arya once he hit the water and flung his arms about, temporarily bringing him to the surface, but then began to feel himself sink like a ton of bricks down into the too-hot water. He kicked ferociously, but couldn't tell if it was actually bringing him towards the surface, the hot water so murky he couldn't make out light. He felt a hand latch onto his forearm and allowed it to drag him towards what he hoped was the surface. When his face finally broke into the cold night air he gasped and subsequently inhaled a decent amount of the salty tasting water. Arya clung to the edge of the spring, her hand fisted in a lump of moss and her other hand still attached to his forearm. Once he reached the edge of the spring he yanked his arm from her grasp and pulled himself out. The chill seeping through his damp clothes surprisingly quickly.

"I'm sorry." She said quickly. But he was in no mood to listen. He simply turned and walked away. She didn't follow him.

\- - o - -

They didn't speak for nearly a week. And every day that passed by Gendry was reminded that it was a day closer to her leaving Winterfell, possibly forever.

But perhaps that was for the better. Once he heard she was safely in Starfall and married to Edric Dayne he could close that chapter of his life. Stop wanting what he would never have and just. move. on. already.

The impending day was almost a sweet relief. During a suppertime in the great hall a week before Arya was meant to leave Lord Snow made the announcement that Sansa and Arya would be leaving for Dorne in a weeks time, but before that there would be a great feast to celebrate Sansa's twenty-first nameday. For some reason the number surprised Gendry she seemed so much older than one and twenty. Gendry always thought her older than himself. She was beautiful, that couldn't be denied, but her face and overall demeanor gave the impression of a woman much older. He wondered when, if ever she intended to marry. Though there had been rumors of Sandor spending some nights alone in Sansa's room, he doubted there was any truth to them.

He looked toward Arya then to find her eyes momentarily fixed on him. But she looked away quickly and he didn't continue to stare to see if they'd return to him. He looked down at his mince pie instead. But it suddenly looked a lot less appetizing than it had moments before.

"I expect to see all of you there and on your best behavior. It may be the last time in a long time that my sisters and I get to have a celebration all together." Jon's words echoed throughout the hall and Gendry reached his glass for the toast that followed. Even as he felt the pain in his chest at having his fears confirmed. Arya most likely wouldn't be returning from Dorne." The feast was set for the evening before the party was set to leave for Dorne and Gendry planned to get well and truly sloshed.

\- - o - -


	7. Chapter 7

-Chapter 7-

He watched her in the training yard the next day. Mostly by accident. It was his day off and he could hardly remember what he did with his days off before Arya became a daily fixutre in his life. He assumed she'd be there, but what was a few more days of seeing her when she'd soon be gone forever?

He watched her as she moved like water, making it easy to understand why it was called waterdancing. He couldn't help but notice she bound her breasts again and although he knew it had to be uncomfortable for her, he was glad for it. The men were watching her eagerly enough without seeing her breasts bounce with each perry and thrust.

He wondered if any of the men considered her his. The thought was preposterous. Obviously she wasn't and would never be, but they did spend a lot of time together and, as he expected, the story of the now almost completely faded mark on his neck had spread throughout Winterfell like wildfyre. The few times he was asked to his face he denied Arya's involvement straightout and chided them for acting like jealous lovers trying to get his story. Even Hammer had given up asking where he'd gotten it, although he had more reason to believe it was from Arya than anyone.

Despite the insufferable heartache that was surely to come with her leaving, he found himself eager for it. Get her away from him. He could stop being crazy for the sight of her. He could stop wondering if he'd run into her everywhere he went.

As he watched her move and fight, he got brave. The men weren't even attempting to get at her, they were mostly just attempting to dodge her quick strikes. Most of them failing, she was such a little thing, surely a good few swipes of a long-sword would strike her easily. She seemed so fragile, yet somehow still deadly. He was just as afraid as he was emboldened by her.

When her men's training was done hours later and after Gendry himself had taken a bit of a beating himself in the training yard (and was thankful for the fact that Arya was too busy to notice him getting his ass handed to him) he decided it was time to make up with Arya before she left. Then perhaps he could look back on their friendship fondly and not with a bitter taste in his mouth. Perhaps he could think back on their kiss and want more of it without hating himself for it.

She sat on a low bench outside the barracks, changing from her thick fighting boots into some worn, brown, unattractive, but comfortable looking loafers. He came and sat down next to her. She didn't look up.

"M'lady." He said in greeting. A smile on his lips. She glanced up at him then, giving him a quick look of annoyance, but didn't speak to correct him. "Have you packed yet?" He asked.

She shook her head, "A bit. My handmaids have been throwing things into a chest in my room since yesterday. I'll probably dump most of it out and fill it with what I'd actually like to take though the morning before we leave." He wondered who her handmaids were. He supposed ladies on their way to see their betrothed should have handmaids with them though. He never fully understood why high born ladies needed even one attendant to do things for them. Let alone more than one. If he had someone following him around in his home all the time he would quickly run out of things for them to do.

For a moment he wondered if he could volunteer to travel with Arya to Starfall. But not only would that be masochistic, for obvious reasons. It also probably wouldn't be allowed, unless he intended to leave to live in Dorne. He couldn't simply visit, they'd need to replace him here while he was gone and if he came back and they had no room for him he would be jobless. Not to mention he'd likely lose his home as well.

"Well that shouldn't be hard, considering you wear the same damn pair of breeches every day." He pointed to the tight brown pair she currently wore. She nudged him in the ribs with her elbow.

"I do not. They just look similar. I had several pairs made in Braavos." She shrugged. "Didn't matter to me what they looked like."

In truth he loved them. While they left little to the imagination, they also were very much a part of Arya. Something the other highborn lords and ladies hadn't taken from her, yet.

"Will your betrothed allow you to wear them? They seem like they'd be uncomfortable in the head of Dorne anyway. I imagine-"

She stopped him with a hand, "I have no betrothed. And even if I did he couldn't stop me from wearing what I want to wear." She looked back down at the laces of her loafers. "If I did have a betrothed and he tried to tell me what to do I'd quickly not have a betrothed again." She used her finger to make a mock slice across her neck like a knife, sticking her tongue out for emphasis. Gendry laughed. And stored the memory away, she was so much like her childhood self just now his heart felt full for a moment.

He watched her hands finish tying her loafers off at the top of her ankle. And tried again to get her explanation of Dorne, "But I'm assuming you'll have an 'official' fiance once you get to Starfall? It's just not 'official' yet even while everyone knows it's true."

She truly glared at him then. "I'm done trying to make you feel better Gendry Waters. You can be upset all you like. Mope about all day for all I care. When I return to Winterfell, whenever that might be and you've spent months wallowing in your own self-pity it'll be too funny." She stood then, so he did too. "I'm assuming you're coming to Sansa's nameday celebration? Are you participating in the melee before the feast?"

He was taken a back at the sudden change in conversation. "I thought about it, but I haven't been training in the yard so much as of late and would probably make a complete fool of meself. I'll be at the feast though."

"Like the fool you made of yourself today?" She smiled. He frowned. So she had seen him.

"I was distracted."

"Oh were you?" She laughed, "What was distracting you?"

He wanted to pull her to him then. Like he would any other woman in this position. Any woman that wasn't highborn, that is. But he could not. 'You distract me, always.' He wanted to say, but he would not. Instead he changed the subject.

"Are you participating in the melee?"

She shook her head in response and they began to walk towards the great keep, or so he thought. It could also be towards his home they were headed. He hoped it was the latter. He suddenly was ravenous to spend time with her. They had less than 4 days before she was leaving for who knows how long, possibly forever.

"Why not participate?" He asked.

"I promised Sansa I wouldn't. She's afraid of me getting hurt the day before we're supposed to leave. She's terrified something will go wrong. She's in quite the hurry to get to Starfall for some reason. She didn't even want to wait until next week, but Jon convinced her to at least have her nameday celebration here, so we could celebrate as a family. She insisted on leaving the next day though. Even if the men we are taking with us will be completely hungover from the festivities."

"That's strange. Why does she want to get you there so badly? Is she so eager to be rid of you?"

She looked at him strangely, "My siblings never want to be rid of me again. Just like I don't want to leave Jon to travel to Dorne."

"But you don't mind leaving me again." He said without thinking. Immediately he regretted it, knowing Arya wouldn't be attempting to make him feel any better. And he was right.

"Who are you?" She paused outside the great keep, "Compared to my brother or my sister? Who are you Gendry Waters? I went years without seeing you. I'm sure I'll manage."

And with that statement of truth she turned and walked into the great keep, where he would not follow. Instead he stalked towards the local pub. Perhaps he'd get started on the birthday festivities a few days early.

\- - o - -

Once safe inside her own room. Away from Gendry she sat on her bed staring into the half-full chest that sat on the ground waiting to be filled with all she'd need for Dorne. Frankly, she felt a little nauseous. What was stopping her from just telling Gendry the truth? 'I'm not trying to marry Edric Dayne, Sansa is.' How hard would that be?

Gendry would be here when she got back, surely. Where else would he go?

She was hit with a sudden realization, something she hadn't thought of before. Gendry was three and twenty now, would be begin looking for a wife? She thought of that blonde kitchen maid, Sarah. The one she'd surprised at Gendry's house so long ago. She'd run into her a few times at the forge as well. Sarah was always in a hurry to leave when Arya showed up. She'd asked Gendry about her once and Gendry said she was 'just a girl'.

What if when she came back she was more than that? What if when she came back she was his wife?

A hollow feeling developed in her chest at the thought. What difference would it make? Would she and Gendry be able to continue on as they were? Obviously requests for him to take her maidenhood would probably be met with a bit more distaste than before, but wouldn't he want to be spending time with his wife. With his... potential children?

She felt tears welling in her eyes and she brushed them away with her sleeve in shock. There was no excuse for it. Gendry could do what he liked. It's not as if...

It wasn't as if ...

As if she could be his wife? As if they could be their children?

She swallowed hard at the lump that had formed in her throat. How would it even work? She could move into his shack. Be there every morning. Would Jon allow it? What could he really do to stop it if she chose to live in Gendry's house? Not much that she could think of. The townspeople would talk, but why should she care?

Would Gendry allow it? Did he want it?

\- - o - -

"I just don't understand why it has to be so soon?" Jon was pleading for an answer. He'd heard the rumors, but could they possibly be true? Should he just as her? Would she be insulted? Would she be honest?

"I want a family, Jon! Arya is going to help me persuade him-"

He cut her short, "Why should any man need to be persuaded? You're Sansa Stark of Winterfell! Can't you pick a man you know? Possibly a man from the north?"

She shook her head, "I wish I could help you to understand. I'm not happy for us to be separated at all, but you need allies. The dragon queen's message was so vague, Jon. Who knows what news she'll bring? What if no one will have me or Arya? Howland Reed told us this was coming. What if the the north isn't happy about a Targaryen Lord?"

"That's exactly why you should be here to lead them if they don't want me! You're a Stark!" Jon shouted.

"You're a Stark too, Jon! Don't let them tell you otherwise!"

"I've never been a Snow, Sansa. Not truly. And they all know it. Now I'm not only not a Stark, I'm not even Ned Stark's son."

"Lyanna was every bit as much of a Stark as father. They know that, Jon!"

Jon shook his head, "I need you here, Sansa. Our family needs you here. At the very least you need to leave Arya."

"Arya has to come, she knows Edric. He thinks she's coming for him."

Jon shook his head again. "When our family loses Winterfell. Who will be to blame? Me?"

"We won't lose it. Arya will return as soon as I'm wed I will leave a letter for the Dragon Queen here that she might read it should she come. We cannot lose our home."

He took two swift steps to bring himself in front of her then, "What are you not telling me, Sansa." He forced her to meet his gaze. "Is it about Sandor?"

He watched the tears well in her eyes then and he thought she was about to nod when she sobbed instead, "I have to marry, now Jon. I need you to understand that. To not find a husband now would be even more disastrous for our family. And the farther away, the better."

"It's true then." He whispered his mouth agape. She did not respond, but instead turned and walked out of his chambers.

Jon sat heavily in the chair closest to him, his head in his hands. "Seven hells." He whispered to his palms.

\- - o - -

The day of the party Arya sat anxiously in her bedchamber. She'd dumped out the items her maids had spent most of the week carefully packing and filled it with her few pairs of britches and a couple of new tunics she'd had made. She placed needle inside she couldn't leave it home when she'd soon be so far away from Jon again.

She looked out her window, seeing little of the bustling little town within Winterfell's walls. She'd chosen a room that showed more of the godswood than anything else. But she looked for Gendry anyway. She would corner him tonight at the party. Force him to dance with her in front of everyone. Ask him if he intended on taking a wife while she was gone, ask him if she would wait for him to return.

She always said she wouldn't marry, but if she married Gendry she wouldn't be leaving her home to go and run someone elses castle. He wouldn't tell her what she could and couldn't do. She could stay living in Winterfell, and if Jon refused to allow him to live in the great keep she could just as easily move out. It hardly looked like her childhood home anymore anyway after all the improvements Jon's men had made.

She considered, for the briefest of moments, the gray gowns Sansa had made for her after she'd returned to Winterfell. She could shock Gendry tonight. Showing up like a proper lady in a dress, let one of her handmaids braid her hair. Let Sansa doll her up with jewelry and perfume. But then she laughed at her own ridiculousness. Not even Gendry was worth all that. Maybe on their wedding day, if he requested it, but she knew he would not. Even as she wasn't sure what his answer would be to her proposal.

If his response to her asking him to take her maidenhead was any indication of what she was in for though, she should be prepared. Maybe she'd wear her breeches, but allow the handmaid to do her hair. Seemed like a nice compromise. Maybe she'd wear her new armor like a knight. Like Lady Brienne that Gendry had told her so much about.

\- - o - -

The great hall was beginning to feel warm already with the amount of bodies that were pressed together inside of it. The ale was already flowing and Gendry was already two pints deep. As kitchen maids bustled about trying to fill the men's cups as quickly as the men drained them he spotted Sarah a few tables away. Hoping she wouldn't come over and intentionally coat him in ale he stood and moved farther away from her. He sat next to Hammer a few seats away.

"Ullo lad." Hammer said to him. "I 'ear your lady is leaving on the morrow then? Who'll keep you company now?"

"Aye Arya's leaving, but there's plenty more ladies where she came from." Gendry attempted to joke, but it didn't come out quite right and made for an awkward couple of seconds. The problem with seeing Hammer outside of the forge was that they saw each other so often there was little to talk about when they weren't working. He searched eagerly for Anguy and finally spotted him. "I'll see you later then." Gendry said in goodbye. Changing his seat yet again.

Anguy pushed another cup of ale on him and Lem began to lead the entire table in a round of 'Hands of Gold'. It was obvious this table was a lot further into their cups than Gendry was, and he was eager to catch up.

He glanced up then to the head table and caught Arya chatting with one of Lord Manderly's grandsons. He quickly looked away. It didn't matter. One lord or another what difference did it make. And he drained his cup.

\- - o - -

Arya scanned the tables looking for Gendry, she'd thought she spotted him once, but Eddard Manderly kept drilling her about her trip to Dorne and when she looked to Eddard to respond and looked back again Gendry was missing. She picked up her drink and drained it.

"You know I was named after your father?" Eddard said aloud.

She smiled at him then, "No I don't think you've ever mentioned that before." Although he had, a thousand times. And they both laughed. For entirely different reasons.

Finally, she did spot Gendry. Singing with Lem and Anguy. Lem with his arm around Gendry's shoulders shaking him back and forth with song so ferociously that Gendry's cup was spilling all over the table. Gendry's smile lit up his face and she felt a strange pang of hurt that she somehow managed to make him angry more often than happy. Maybe a marriage between them wasn't such a great idea. Maybe she was keeping him from some kitchen maid that made him happy.

She looked about the packed hall to see if she could find Sarah, but she could not. Too many bodies moving this way that. Arya couldn't think of a thing that would make Sarah stand out from the other maids. Besides the fact that Gendry had been inside her. He'd kissed her ten times as many times as he'd kissed Arya. She felt her hand grip her pint a bit harder. Jealousy was not a friend to Arya.

Suddenly she remembered a conversation she and Gendry had had a long time ago. Something about Gendry ringing some black-haired girls bells. She'd been cross with him then and recognized the jealous feeling again now. She sat and watched Gendry only after that, ignoring Eddard Manderly's prattling as she drained her second cup of ale. She willed him to look at her, but he would not. Soon she would go down and find him herself.

\- - o - -

Gendry's head swam. Somehow they'd ended up just outside the great hall. Lem and Anguy still singing loudly. Their friend Pyp bid them farewell as he was part of the party headed to Dorne tomorrow and he didn't want to be too sick to function. Gendry waved a goodbye and looked up to the stars. For a moment in his drunken state he was completely mesmerized by them.

Could these possibly be the same stars he'd spent countless freezing nights under? Could these be the same stars he could faintly see through the smog of kings landing? Could they be the same stars he'd looked up to while a child named Arry slept next to him, cuddled against his side in fear. The same stars he prayed to while he wondered if they'd be chosen to die the next day?

He realized the night had grown quiet. Lem and Anguy had apparently made their way back inside. How long had he been standing here? He held an empty cup of ale, but upturned it anyway to see if he could get a couple more drops.

When the feeling of being watched hit him and the hairs on the back of his neck raised up in alert. He turned slowly towards a tower of crates packed up against the entrance to the castle.

"Who's there." He said, his voice sounding a lot more steady then he felt. His vision doubled as a figure stepped out in front of him.

"You are completely sloshed." The voice rang out melodically and matter-of-factually.

He instantly relaxed. "I am." He said smiling. And looked the darkened figure of her up and down. He couldn't help it. He had the perfect excuse anyway.

She reached up and took the cup out of his hands. Turning and setting it on top of the crates behind her.

"Care to go home?" She asked. And he couldn't tell if it was the ale, but her cadence seemed seductive. An invitation of sorts.

"With you?" He heard the words slur, but couldn't care in that moment.

"Of course." She replied. Taking his arm and leading him around the front of the keep towards his shack.

\- - o - -

Once she'd barred the door behind him and had him sitting on the bed she turned to attempt to light the fire in his hearth. It proved to be a bit difficult, she had only had a few pints but her hands still fumbled on the flint in her hand. Perhaps it wasn't the ale at all, perhaps it was just the eyes of the man behind her.

He wouldn't try anything, she knew, even drunk Gendry had honor. But with her help perhaps he could be persuaded. She didn't bring him here with the intent of seducing him, but she did still have that pesky maidenhead to be dealt with and she'd done nothing but think of his hands on her for the last two weeks.

Gendry laid back against the bed and said to the ceiling, "Arry's starting a fire."

She laughed at the nickname. "Please try not to think of me as Arry. Not right now." She laughed again at her own joke. Finally bringing the flames in the hearth to a place they wouldn't quickly be brought back from she turned on Gendry.

"I suppose we should start with the boots." She said aloud.

"You're not wearing boots." He looked down at her shoes.

She couldn't help but laugh again. "Try to be less drunk Gendry I'm going to disrobe you."

Gendry smiled and she laughed at the goofy expression he wore. "You couldn't dare." Which made no sense. Was it ethical to take advantage of him in this state? She wasn't sure, but she could ask Tarly in the morning.

\- - o - -

Author Notes: I've already started on the next chapter! At some point I may combine a few of the chapters to make the story more like 6 chapters in total with about 6k words per chapter since some of my chapters tend to be a little short, but hopefully the speed at which I'll be whipping them out will keep you happy nonetheless.


	8. Chapter 8

Notes: This is that one chapter you should probably save to read until after work. Or skip entirely if explicit sex scenes make you uncomfortable. Enjoy and Review!

 **\- Chapter 8 -**

As she slipped her undershirt off in one fluid movement and allowed it to fall into the chair to her right, she chanced another glance in Gendry's direction. He lay on his back sideways in his bed. One leg pulled up so his knee was in the air, the other dangling off the side of the bed. A moment ago he'd been watching her with curiosity in his eyes, but now he'd thrown his arm across his brow to block her from his vision. His full lips were tilted down in a frown.

"You look pained, blacksmith." She laughed as she reached down and began to untie the laces of her breeches.

Gendry chanced another glance at her and saw that she was naked from the waist up. No bindings were around her middle tonight. She watched his brilliant blue eyes take in the sight for a moment, before he groaned and threw the arm back across his brow.

"What are you doing, Arya? Don't do this now." He choked out.

She couldn't help it, she laughed again. In truth, as annoying as it was, she loved Gendry's honor. It reminded her of her father and of Jon. She knew that if they knew the real Gendry, the infuriatingly kind and honorable Gendry, they wouldn't have a single objection to her marrying him. She frowned though when she remembered that they probably would in fact have a problem with her marrying a simple blacksmith.

For the first time in a long time she imagined what her life would be like if she were still in Braavos. Assuming she wasn't still with the faceless men she would have been free to marry whomever she wanted. There were no rules about love there. She wouldn't be "high-born" and he wouldn't be "low-born", they would just be people. Just a man and a woman. A man and a woman in...

She shook her head to stop her train of thought. Realizing she'd stopped short of shimmying out of her breeches, she did so now. Bringing her foot up to pull them off of her ankle along with her worn brown socks.

Her hands shook a little bit when she reached to push down her linen smallclothes. She was thankful that Gendry was refusing to look at her, suddenly this one garment seemed to symbolize all of her security in the world. When she removed it she'd be vulnerable. She pushed it down nonetheless and stood still for a moment to gather her courage as she watched Gendry's chest rise and fall slowly on the bed.

For a moment she thought he'd fallen asleep, but then he spoke. His deep voice sent a chill from the tips of her breasts down to her core. It had absolutely no reason to since she'd heard it a thousand times, but in this moment it had.

"Please tell me you've decided to put your clothes back on."

"I have." Her voice broke on the short sentence, but he didn't seem to notice. He quickly removed his arm to look at her and she watched his chest rise with a deep breath as he stared at her. She stood still, ignoring the impulse to cover herself.

When he didn't speak for a moment she said, "I lied." It came out a whisper. He didn't move. Finally he said,

"I don't know what to do, Arya. I'm not sure what to say. I'm drunk."

She took a step towards him, she half expected him to flee away from her, but instead he sat up slowly. She took another step towards him and he turned to stone, not even seeming to breathe.

She reached him in the next step, and he leaned away from her a bit, putting his arms on either side of him. Most likely to keep himself upright. She knelt then on the ground in front of him her knees digging into the hard wood floor beneath her. He still didn't move. She'd removed his boots for him nearly as soon as they'd arrived. They'd been caked in mud and she wasn't sure if he was too drunk to do it himself. So now she set her hands on tops of his thighs, just above his knees and looked up towards his face. His thick brown hair hung low on his forehead, obstructing her view of his brilliant blue orbs a bit.

Her heart skipped a beat at the expression on his face. He looked deadly serious, yet somehow he looked as if he were pleading with her. For what she wasn't sure. He claimed he wanted her to stop, but did he mean it?

"Will you take of your tunic?" Her voice was almost a whisper. At first he didn't move, but then he sat up straight and grabbed the edge of his tunic with both hands. His eyes never left hers as he pulled the shirt off of him with one quick pull. She looked at him then, taking in the slight patch of dark hair across the top of his tanned chest, her eyes sliding down farther to the group of muscles at his stomach, and finally still farther down where she could see the bulge beneath the stretched taut laces of his breeches.

She had never thought of a man as beautiful before, but there was no other way to describe Gendry. He was beautiful. Masculinity in its purest form. She reached up tentatively and placed her hand against the hair at his chest. Feeling his pulse beating wildly against her hand and the rise and fall as he breathed deeply above her. She slid it down slowly and felt the muscles in his stomach contract suddenly as he reached them, her fingers brushing delicately at the trail of dark hair that began just below his belly button and disappeared beneath his laces. She traced this trail down and he jumped violently when she brushed against what could only be the tip of his cock straining against the top of his waistband.

She reached for the laces of his breeches with both hands, but stopped before untying them. She looked up into his face, "Is this okay, Gendry?" She asked. Her voice cracking and giving away the cool facade she was attempting to convey. He took three full breaths and then nodded infinitesimally once. But it was enough for her. Her long fingers made quick work of the tight knot and when she looked up she could see his eyes closed tight again. Most likely from the slight friction her fingers caused against his erection while she worked at the laces. She reached up towards his hips to begin to slide his breeches off when his hands met hers. He stood and pushed the breeches down to his ankles, before sitting again and pulling them off his feet. Arya sitting in front of him all the while.

Once free of its restraints, his cock slapped against his flat stomach once before springing free and standing erect nearly directly in front of her face. She stared for a moment, suddenly unsure if the things she'd witnessed or overheard about sex were accurate. There was no possible way he was going to fit inside of her. She inhaled deeply and he stared at her face un-moving while sitting on the bed. She took the opportunity to reach up and wrap her hand around him without warning. And reveled in the gasp that escaped his throat and the jerking motion of his hips when she touched him.

With new confidence she moved her hand slowly down to the base of his cock and back up again while Gendry's already rapid breathing somehow doubled. She gripped him harder and his breath came out in a heavy pant. She suddenly felt the cool air against the wetness between her legs.

"I've never done this before." She whispered to him as she stood. Her hand still holding his cock.

"And you don't have to do this now if you'd rather not, Arya." He choked out. She smiled again at his worrying over her.

"Don't you know by now?" She asked as she climbed onto the bed, placing her knees on either side of his hips. He used his arms to scoot backwards on the bed to better accommodate her and she adjusted so that the apex of her legs hovered just above his own. "I would never do anything I didn't want to do." She leaned down slowly moving his cock in her hand and positioning herself so that he was pressed against her entrance.

"It might hurt some." He suddenly blurted. "I've never been with a maid before, Arya, but I heard that it hurts the first-"

"I'm a woman grown, Gendry." She snapped. "I know how it works." He shut up then. Just looking up at her, holding himself up a bit with his elbows against the bed behind him. He nodded in answer.

She took a deep breath and lowered herself onto him, until the tip of his cock just entered her. She felt then just how slick she was for him and just how hot he felt pressed inside of her. She took another deep breath and attempted to slide him inside a bit farther, but was met with resistance. Unsure if this was her maidenhead or not she pushed through the sting of pain that the intrusion caused, but was unable to take him in much farther. She moved her hips in a circle to attempt to lubricate the area more and hopefully take him in all the way, but the unexpected friction caused Gendry to jump again, thrusting himself up into her and eliciting a stab of pain from inside her.

"Ah!" She said and slipped off of him with a jerk of her hips.

"I'm so sorry." Gendry's face showed his panic as he sat up and moved himself away from her. "I didn't mean to, I... I'm so-"

She shut him up with her mouth against his. He sat up straight and she pulled himself into her lap fully. She settled her soaking wet core against the side of his shaft. He kissed her deeply, bringing his hand up to rest behind her head and using his other hand against her lower back to push her forward along his shaft. She gasped into his mouth when the friction caused a shock of pleasure to run up from her core to her neck and back down again. With her encouragement he began rocking himself against her. Causing his shaft to slide between the lips on the outside of her sex and sending shivers of pleasure throughout her body as he moved.

"Gendry..." She whispered into his ear. Her hands against the sides of his head as his mouth assaulted her own neck. She felt his breath pant in pantomime with the movements of his hips below her as the pressure between her legs built. She wasn't completely sure what was about to happen, but she knew what her body was craving. "Please, inside me Gendry. You do it." She whispered.

He took her mouth in his again as he reached between them, she shifted her weight to her knees to give him room as he adjusted himself so the tip of his now soaked cock rested once again at her entrance. He moved his hips up slowly to press into her and she sank down onto him simultaneously. She accommodated him a little more easily this time and managed to take half of him in before the stinging pain returned.

A noise of pain left the back of her throat and she immediately regretted it, because he immediately stopped pressing himself into her. But instead of pulling out of her altogether he placed his hand at the juncture of her hip and thigh and reached his thumb down between them to rub at the folds between her legs. When he flicked something hidden and sensitive on the inside of her folds she gasped again and jumped, quickly pressing herself back down onto him when she recovered.

"Tell me if you want me to stop." He whispered next to her ear. She nodded in response and he began rubbing the tiny spot between her legs in a slow circle with his thumb. She felt her body's response to him when his shaft penetrated fully inside her and her own wetness pooled at the base of his cock. She pressed down into him to assure that she had taken all of him inside of her and his hips rose to meet her. She used her hips to grind down into his with his erection fully inside of her as he continued to rub circles with his thumb against the nub between her legs. A pressure began to build inside of her and a tingling feeling spread out from her core to the tips of her toes. The feeling began to be almost too much to bear, and because she wasn't sure what the feeling meant she reached her hand down, grabbing his wrist.

"Wait." She choked out.

"What's wrong?" He dipped his head so that his eyes caught hers. "It doesn't feel good?" He whispered. Unsure of himself.

She shook her head. "No it.. it feels good, it's just too much. I feel like I might snap." She felt the rumbling of the laugh in his chest before she could hear it with her ears and glared up at him. "What?" She barked in a whisper.

He shook his head now, "Nothing. Nothing." He tried to pull his hand out of her grasp, but she held it firm. "You want the snap, Arya. It's a good thing."

Her brow furrowed, unsure what he meant. After a moment, he looked down between them, laughing once again. Somehow he caught her off-guard as he threw his arm around her back and flipped them. Removing himself from within her, but hovering between her legs still. Now she looked up at him with her back pressed against the mattress.

"Let me try something?" He looked down into her face. "Don't stop me?" It came out as a question and after a moments hesitation Arya nodded.

Gendry began to move off of her then and she nearly did stop him until she felt his hands take the insides of her thighs in a soft grip. His mouth descended between her legs and she felt the heat of his breath against her. When his tongue suddenly darted out to swipe once between the swollen lips of her sex, her head flung back against the mattress and her hands automatically found themselves threaded in his thick black hair. Gendry took this as encouragement and began to lap at the same tiny nub in her folds that he'd circled with his thumb earlier. The sensation at first seemed to be once again too much, but quickly turned into a much appreciated caress. As his tongue moved against her more vigorously she found it difficult to keep her hips still and moved herself against his mouth in jerking, increasingly sporadic movements.

A tension built low in her belly that grew to a fever pitch and she nearly stopped him again when she felt his lips latch onto the tiny spot between her legs and suck her nub deep into his mouth. She felt the snap that she'd been avoiding earlier hit and with it came a wave of incomprehensible pleasure that rippled from her core up to the top of her head and then back down all the way to her toes. Her legs moved of their own volition to wrap around his shoulders. Her own shoulder blades involuntarily rose up off of the mattress, causing her breasts to thrust up into the air as her hands gripped the hair at the back of his head. She rode out the waves of pleasure while rocking her hips rhythmically against his mouth and found it hard to control her breathing as her vision blurred the ceiling above her. When the waves began to fade she found herself breathing hard as her body settled back against the bed once more. Gendry's face hovered above her sex as he looked up at her face. She removed her hands from his head languidly. Her arms and legs suddenly felt like lead. She moved her arms to rest on either side of her head as she attempted to catch her breath.

"What just happened?" She whispered finally as she felt Gendry move up towards her face. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he reached her. She didn't miss his tongue dart out to lick the taste of her off of his lips and she felt another pang of arousal despite what had just happened to her.

"The snap." He smiled. "I told you it was something you wanted." He moved off of her and laid on his side then, the length of his cock rock hard and sticking straight out. He moved his hips so that it wasn't poking her in the side.

"You didn't finish?" She looked down at him.

He let out a breathy laugh in response. "No, but doing that to you was enough."

Her hand reached down to wrap around him once more and his eyes closed. His erection was throbbing now, somehow even harder than before.

"Show me more, Gendry." She whispered to him, stroking the length of him once, twice, three times. "Fuck me, blacksmith." She whispered again when he didn't immediately respond. He opened his eyes then and used his hands to turn her so that she was facing away from him. Her back pressed against his chest. He slid his arm up between her side and the mattress and used this hand to spread the lips of her cunt, careful not to brush against the now overly sensitive nub he'd already assaulted. She lifted her right leg to accommodate him and felt him press his throbbing cock against her soaked core once again. He entered her from behind and this time he slipped in in one fluid movement. The sting wasn't present, although she could feel the walls within her stretching taut to accommodate him once more.

Once inside of her he used his hand to push her leg back down and instead gripped her hip to use as leverage as he began rocking himself in and out of her. In this position his cock felt like it was the size of log between her legs. Sinking into the wet heat of her in a quick jerk before pulling back out and leaving her feeling empty again. As his thrusts began to pick up pace she felt the tingling feeling begin to spread throughout her limbs once more. His hand snaked from where it gripped her hip up to cup her breast instead and she felt his mouth move to nibble on the sensitive skin of her neck. Her hand instinctively moved up to grip his hand that was kneading her breast as he moved within her. She felt herself rocking against him with each new thrust suddenly unable to take him deep enough within her. She pushed back against him, grinding her ass against his pelvis each time he drove into her. His breathing became ragged against her neck. They continued this way for a few moments until his hand moved from simply cupping her breast to tugging on her hardened nipple. He rolled it between his fingers and pulled gently on it, causing a fresh wave of pleasure to move through her and with it a fresh gush of moisture to coat the inside of her thighs. He moaned into her ear at the feeling.

"I won't- last much longer, Arya. I'm sorry." He choked out between his ragged breaths. She felt him move his arm that was beneath her to slip his finger between the folds of her sex once more. Rubbing her sensitive nub with his middle finger in a tight circle as his hips jerked against her. Her hand snapped up to grip the back of his head as he pressed his face into her neck. The jerking of his hips against her ass became frenzied and there was an audible 'slap' each time he drove into her.

"Ar-ya." Her name came out of his throat through gritted teeth. And with it she snapped again. This time crying out in ecstasy when the first wave of pleasure hit her. Her back arched to help push him further inside of her. He slammed into her a final time and then, once fully inside of her, jerked his hips against her harshly as he grunted softly in her ear, his entire body shaking as he rocked deep within her, pushing into her as far as he could possibly go. She felt the first gush of hot liquid deep inside of her core and was suddenly wildly aroused with the knowledge that he was breeding her. Putting his seed deep inside of her. Claiming her like a wolf in heat. Some primal instinct inside of her caused her to push up into him when he attempted to pull out. Not ready to have him finished filling her yet.

They stayed latched together for a while after their orgasms stopped. His hips held tight against her ass as she felt his cock twitch inside of her fluttering walls in the aftermath of their fucking. His hand was still between her legs, but un-moving. His arm wrapped around her protectively holding her tight against him and his breath beat gently against her ear. They didn't move for a full minute until finally she brought her arm down from behind his head, rolling away from him slightly. He took the queue and slowly slipped out from inside of her. They both sighed at the loss of contact and she felt something warm and wet slip out of her to trickle down the back of her thigh.

She moved so that she lay on her back next to him. He reached over and grabbed the blanket that had been unceremoniously shoved to the corner of his bed and haphazardly covered them with it. The fire she'd built in the hearth when they'd first arrived at his home burned so low now they couldn't feel the heat emanating from it any longer. He turned his body back towards her and threw his arm across her stomach, pulling her to him, his breath once again in her ear.

"I love you, Arya." He whispered, and kissed her there against the hair plastered to the side of her head with sweat. "I always have."

He didn't seem to notice when she didn't respond and soon she heard his breathing even out into what was definitely an easy slumber. She felt the throb between her legs turn from pleasure to an aching from the assault it had just received. She closed her eyes to attempt to sleep, but it wouldn't come.

She'd heard stories of men who professed their love in bed, but took it back the next morning. In the stories the women were always the stupid ones for having believed them in the first place. She tried to sort out the thoughts in her head. Did she regret what they had done? How soon after he bred her did she have to drink moon tea for it to take effect? She found herself unable to focus over the most looming question of all. Could they recover from this? Could they ever go back to being simply friends?

She looked over at his face just next to hers. His dark lashes were so long they brushed against his cheek as he slept. His lips were full and dark from all the sucking he'd been up to and his hair stuck up in strange places from where she had gripped it with her hands.

She waited a few moments more before she slipped out from beneath his arm. Shivering in the cold air outside of his bed. She remembered when they were children he would always wake just before she would. But this time he stayed sleeping. She was almost disappointed. But she had packing to do and had to get Tarly to make her some moon tea before she left in the morning. As she looked outside she saw the sky lightening and knew she didn't have much time. She thought of kissing him before she left, but he was sleeping, what difference did it make? So she turned and left him there.

\- - o - -

Gendry woke when the sunlight from the crack in the curtains hit him full in the face. He groaned at the feeling in his head and the stinging sensation he felt against his scalp. It took a moment before the memories came flooding back to him. Arya's nails raking against his scalp as she came violently against his mouth. The feel of her almost too-tight cunt draining his cock of his cum as she ground against him and nearly shouted his name.

He quickly sat upright in bed and threw his cover back. She wasn't there. He looked around and quickly threw the clothes he'd been wearing the night before on. He stuffed his sock less feet into his boots and ran outside. Squinting against the harsh sunlight, he ran for the stables. Inside he found one of Arya's soldiers brushing out the mane of one of the smaller palfreys.

"Has Arya left?" Gendry nearly shouted when he reached him.

The man turned towards him, taking in his disheveled appearance slowly. "Aye." His nod of affirmation caused a lurching feeling in the pit of Gendry's stomach. "Lady Stark and her sister left for Dorne this morning, lad. You didn't see the procession leave?" Gendry had already turned to stumble away from him before he'd finished his sentence.

"What time is it?" He asked before he left the stable.

"Well past noon." The man grunted in reply. "Drank a bit too much last night, eh? Did ya have work this morning?"

Gendry nodded. He was supposed to have been at the forge at noon. Though he really had no idea how he was meant to go stand in the forge now. He stood still for a moment wondering if he should saddle up and go after Arya. They would have left at day break, so they had maybe seven or eight hours of a lead, could he catch them? What would happen if he did?

\- - o - -


End file.
